Hypocrites Always Fall in Love
by it's a riot
Summary: A Lily and James story. The story follows their lives from the beginning to the end. Tends to be a bit humorous or so I’m told, so hold on to your hats. I have started working on this again, so an update is imminent.
1. Chapter 1 A Thing Called Fate

**_Hypocrites Always Fall in Love_**

A Lily and James story.  The story follows their lives from the beginning to the end.  Tends to be a bit humorous (or so I'm told), so hold on to your hats.

This is my first fanfiction, and is also posted up on the message boards at harrypotter.com.  This story is based on evidence and clues from all the Harry Potter Books currently being published (1-5), and theories my friend and I came up with.

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing here, except most of the plot (minus what JKR told us in the Harry Potter books).  The characters you think sound familiar, are most likely familiar to you, because they are property of J.K. Rowling.  But the ones you don't recognize belong to me.  Okay?  Okay.

**Prologue-**

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            A young man, just barely over twenty, stood silently in his thoughts.  He felt prisoner to his feelings, too many emotions seeping into the depths of his heart. The pain was almost unbearable. He tried to remember back to the good times.  Although he could not think of them now, he had had many joyful occasions with the pair.  He often thought back to the day they had first met.  Of course, he had known the boy since the day they were born.  They had always been best friends.  He recalled how his best friend's eyes sparkled when he first laid eyes on her...it was almost too much too think about.

            So, I suppose for this man's sake, we should start at the beginning.  I believe the young man would like you to note that this is one story you shalln't forget.  Just remember that through it all, neither had one single regret, since they realized, even though they were just out of childhood, that true love is always worth waiting for.

**Chapter One-** A Thing Called Fate      

            _"Lily, take Harry and go!  It's him!  Go!  Run!  I'll hold him off –", James yelled, pointing to the back door.            _

_            Wordlessly, with tears flowing down her face, she looked at him, somehow knowing this would be the last time she would gaze into the warm hazel ocean of his sparkling eyes.  Lily stumbled out of the living room, and ran up the stairs at a frightening speed.  She made a mad dash for Harry's crib, and just in the mist of doing this, she heard the door of their beautiful home come crashing down._                                                                                                            

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            Lily Evans awoke in a cold sweat, her eyes brimming with fear.  She had been having this same dream over and over again, though some parts were clearer than others. She had never fully gone through the whole dream, and she supposed that was why it came back to haunt her….but, then again, she was no physiatrist or dream-interpreter, or whatever-you-called-them.

            She sighed.  It was no use.  She had no idea what the dream meant. Lily twisted a lock of curly, scarlet hair around her finger in confusion. She didn't know any Jameses, which was as good a reason as any not to have a son named Harry with him. For heaven's sake, she was only ten years old!  Er… well, eleven in about two days.

            So on this beautiful July evening, she sat on the window seat of her room, staring at the glittering moon, and thinking about her destiny.         

            She had no idea that the one who shared her destiny was doing the exact same thing at the moment.       

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            James Potter looked over at his best friend, Sirius Black, and scowled. What good is a friend if he doesn't want to get up at midnight and prank his sister with you?  And he'd had the perfect prank planned, too, _thank you very much!_  What was he going to do with the three cases of Filbuster's fireworks that could set people's hair on fire?  But _nnooo… Sirius couldn't even go three days without sleep?  How _pathetic_!  How were they going to pull all those pranks at Hogwarts that they'd been planning since they were four years old?!  You have to be pretty much __nocturnal to pull them off!_

            They had always been best friends.  Just the two of them.  What happened?  Best friends don't bail out on each other!  Sirius was just acting plain old _stupid!_

            He glared silently at the full moon, as if it was the cause of his unhappiness.

            I wonder if Sirius and I will still be friends when we get to Hogwarts, He thought quietly.  This made him uneasy.  He couldn't picture having fun and pulling pranks at Hogwarts without his best friend.

            Then, unknowingly, he and Lily said something at the same time… as though it was a sign of things to come….   

            _"I guess it's up to fate."_

~Sorry it's such a short chapter.  Don't worry… the next chapter is _much longer.~_


	2. Chapter 2 How to Survive the Torture of...

_**Hypocrites Always Fall in Love**_

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of this (except most of the plot, and the characters you don't recognize). It all belongs to the _amazing _J.K. Rowling.

**Chapter Two**- How to Survive the Torture of Being Eleven

The next day, a very tired Lily Evans clambered out of her bed. As she stood in front of the mirror, she sleepily tried to tame her annoying wavy locks. She was having no luck, though. Especially with a bit of hair knotted together the size of a baseball. She stared at the maple paneling of the mirror, the intricate engravings flowing artistically around the frame, as if it would bare the secret of how to get baseball-sized knots out of people's hair.

Finally, after getting dressed (and her hair under control) Lily went downstairs for breakfast. She passed Petunia's room and heard her muttering something about Vernon, her boyfriend (Dursley. Lily truly disliked the boy. He had always been so annoying, like a woodpecker that kept pecking trees, only he wouldn't stop knocking on the Evans' door). It sounded very much like; "I do. I do! Of course I'll love him all my life, what do you think I am stupid?" Lily was tempted to go into Petunia's room and answer the question from her subconscious mind for her, but thought better of it. Being the younger sibling meant that she would get blamed. For everything.

Her parents were always slightly amused with the way Lily behaved, though. They're so sweet to see it my way, Lily thought, biting back an evil grin. Her dear parents were sometimes puzzled with things that happened though, as was Lily. Unusual things. Sometimes she felt like part a of freak show and she was the main attraction. Strange things would happen whenever she was angry or upset. Once, it had been truly funny when Lily somehow made Christopher Munning (the boy who sat behind her in class) end up in the chili pot in the school kitchens. Although it hadn't been nearly as hiliarious when she and her parents were called to a conference with the headmaster. All Lily had been thinking was that she was hungry, and that Christopher needed to stop throwing spitballs at her. But since no one could prove she had done it, she was let off. Boy did her parents scold her for that one. Blimey, she was probably still grounded for that.

But they had their reasons. The Evans had always had a reputation of being overachievers and fairly good athletes. Lily always tried to live up to those standards, but sports got the better of her. She wasn't all that talented when you put a soccer ball in front of her, but she didn't see the point to sports anyway. Sports had to be imaginative to catch her attention. Soccer didn't really intrigue her. What was so amazing about people kicking around a ball?

Despite their upstanding reputation, the Evan's weren't the most well off in England. That title belonged to some family dynasty by the name of Potter. Lily didn't pay much attention to it, but her father bragged about getting compared to them at least once a week, even though they were considered slightly odd since their children were being home schooled and all. Though it did make good press for her father's newspaper when he interviewed the Potters, well, Mr. Daniel Potter, every month. His monthly column, "The Potters' 700 Secrets to Success" went very well with the public. Regardless of this fact, she had never met one of the Potters, and never intended to. She could write a whole biography about the Potter line with everything she'd heard about them from her father. The Potters were her father's idols. He was convinced that in 5 years, he would be just as successful as them, and really be in their league. It wasn't like they were poor or anything. Lily's father just had somewhat impossible dreams.

Now, Lily's mother was much more practical. Her goals were fairly realistic. She was a book-keeper, for now, though. But she knew she was ready for bigger and better things. Lily's mother was writing her first novel. Well, she was in the process of it. Her mother, Christine Evans, was sometimes doubtful of her talent. But Lily had complete confidence in her mom; after analyzing literature for a hobby there was no one in her mind better suited for such a career.

Lily headed down stairs trying to keep these heavy topics out of her mind. Both her parents had off of work today to help Lily plan what she wanted to do for her birthday. It was one of the few hot, humid, summer days she wouldn't have to spend inside all day with Petunia.

She slipped into her chair at the table and looked around. No mother cooking a breakfast of bacon and eggs on the hot griddle for her father. Where could they be?

The bewildered 10 year old shuffled out of the kitchen to the den, in search if her parents. She found them frantically pulling on their shoes, and hopping towards the door.

"Mom, Dad, where are you going?" Lily asked quietly, predicting in her head their answers.

"Lil," her father addressed her slowly," The manager from the Daily Examiner called. He told me that the reporter covering the Potters column didn't get enough information to fill the slot. So I've got to go interview the Potters at their annual social luncheon."

"And Mum has to go with you?"

"Well... Mr.Potter requested to meet her, apparently he found out about the book she's writing, and he's interested in publishing it."

"Muuummm. It's not fair! You promised you'd stay home today! No matter what," Lily sulkily replied.

Mrs.Evans looked guiltily at Mr.Evans.

"You've got to understand, Lily! This could be your Mum's big break!"

"Yeah, alright," she said still not forgiving them, "But don't forget my birthday."

Her father chuckled.

"That's my little angel...now you be good, and don't annoy our sister, or wake her up."

Lily rolled her eyes.

Either they didn't see this, or they ignored it. Her father opened the door, and moved outside, holding it for her mother.

"Bye Lulabell," her mother smiled lovingly as she closed the door, "Don't worry. We'd never forget your birthday."

"Sure, Mum. Bye." Lily said back, still feeling betrayed.

She heard a loud grunt from upstairs. Probably Petunia waking up, she thought miserably. She steadied herself, and got ready for a day of torture from Petunia.

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July 22nd was not a normal day for eleven year old James. His parents had shipped him off to Sirius's house the night before. Said something about him getting in the way of their annual luncheon. Yeah, right. James was as harmless as a fly. Well, except for the time he broke all those plates...Or the time where the dungbomb went off on the Minster of Magic's head...Oh, and we can't forget the time he drove one of his nannies insane in less than 3 days that she quit...but that was with Sirius's help...oh but this all beside the point. James had never been to one of those luncheons, and he wanted to go. Just to see what it was like. It wasn't like he would set anyone's hair on fire...exception of maybe one of the muggles because he had three unused cases of fireworks.

He stared at Sirius across from him, and wondered why he was eating his breakfast so fast. Sirius's father, Chistopher, also stared at his ravenous eating pattern.

Sirius looked up to see two disgusted people gawking at him. He had a bit of egg hanging from his mouth.

"What?"

"Nothing, Sirius, nothing." Mr. Black said ignoring his son's questions.

"No! What?" Sirius questioned, clearly confused.

"So...getting your Hogwarts letters today?" Mr. Black asked James, trying to change the subject.

"Yeah! I can't wait." James said fervently, tearing his eyes away from Sirius, who had cleared away his plate. His mother walked in, astonished that Sirius had finished his breakfast so quickly. She looked at him in disbelief.

"WHAT?" Sirius yelled, wondering why everyone was staring at him.

"Nothing, dear. Excited about getting your letters today boys?" Nima Black asked, amused with their response.

"Mom? Do you think I'm a squib?" Sirius's voice rang out

James stifled a laugh as he thought of how Mrs. Black could possibly answer. It was obvious that Sirius was trying to make her feel sorry for him in order to get something he wanted. That was the only way things worked for Sirius. He whines, he gets.

"Nooo...What on earth would give you the idea that you were a squib?" she responded falling for the bait. "Squibs belong to weaker wizarding families. There's not a chance of it."

"It's just...well...all the real wizards have good brooms, and mine, I…I..." he feigned, bottom lip trembling, "I can't find it!"

"Sirius," she began sweetly, but it soon evolved into..."I'VE TOLD YOU MILLION TIMES THAT IF YOU LOST YOUR BROOM AGAIN, I WOULDN'T BE REPLACING IT! DON'T GIVE THAT 'I'M A SQUIB' NOSENSE. I'M NOT FALLING FOR IT! ...ESPECIALLY SINCE YOU TRIED TO USE THAT DECOY LAST WEEK!"

Sirius began to whine like a little girl that had just been told she couldn't have her favorite doll.

"Oh...Don't start with me Sirius! You do not need a replacement for a broom you got last month."

"But Mooommmm..."

"Puh-lease Sirius! You can do better than that!" James said, encouraging the quarrel. Mr. Black gave James a look.

Sirius grinned a haughty smile.

"Oh, honestly... you two are going to drive me crazy!" said Mrs. Black, feeling exasperated.

"Which is exactly where they want you, dear. Then they'll proceed in driving me up the wall," Mr. Black responded, helping himself to some more bacon.

The two pranksters shared a devilish glance and an equally evil smile.

Mrs. Black sighed, not even bothering to tell them off.

Mr. Black picked up his empty bowl, eager to get away from the table, guessing that his wife was feeling particularly murderous at the moment. He silently washed his bowl, while the boys began whispering about some prank they were going to pull off. He didn't get a good vibe from this. Neither did the Missus it appeared. She was staring into space as though she was devising her own little prank. Mr. Black placed his silverware into the dishwasher, and snorted.

Then, quite suddenly, all eyes were on him.

"Sirius... this is the third time this week," he exclaimed, in an almost furious manner. "Why do you continue to place your broomstick in the dishwasher?"

"That's not a dishwasher!" Sirius defended. "It's for broomsticks! It says 'Broom-master 3000'! BROOMsticks! 'BROOM-master' 3000! It makes sense!"

"It would, Sirius," James fought away the instinct to laugh, "If it really wasn't a dishwasher! Even I know it's a dishwasher!"

"And that's saying something, Sirius! James has got almost less of a brain than you!" Regulus, Sirius' brother, managed to say, even though he had just appeared at the foot of the stairs.

"Hey!" the spoken responded indigently, "Have not!"

"Boys, boys! Settle down. Now Chistopher, dear, I've got to go Diagon Alley for a bit... but I want you to watch these two. Okay?" intervened Mrs. Black.

Mr. Black nodded in response.

"Of course, until Ashley arrives."

"Do I have to spend the whole day with Sirius?" Little Regulus asked, in a whining voice.

Sirius looked highly insulted.

"Hey, it's _no _bed of roses for me either, sweetie!"

Then, Mrs. Black headed out the door, she gave Mr. Black the sign that said perfectly; 'Keep them in line.'

And as Sirius geared up to take another blow to Regulus, James held him back by the arm.

"Don't," he hissed, "Don't say anything. With your Dad watching us, that means we'll get to sneak into Mom and Dad's luncheon!"

Sirius's eyes were as round as saucers. He uttered his famous words for the very first time.

"What'll be the damage, mate?"


	3. Chapter 3 The First Step to Getting Rid...

_**Hypocrites Always Fall in Love**_

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of this (except most of the plot, and the characters you don't recognize). It all belongs to the _amazing _J.K. Rowling.

**Chapter Three**- The First Step to Getting Rid of Petunia

"Exactly how are we going to get in there, Sherlock?" Sirius asked, looking at the house that had practically been his second home since he figured out how to walk there. Which was a long time seeing as it was only three houses down from his own home.

James and Sirius were standing in front of a huge house. Well... it was more of a mansion than it was a home. The yard and the mansion together took up about 3 acres. The home was beautifully furnished with many different kinds of furniture, all amazing, all from different time periods. One whole room of the house was dedicated to Jackson Pollack. You know, paint splattered everywhere, bright colors like reds, blues, and yellows. The works. Actually, that was the only room, besides James's room, Sirius and James were allowed to help decorate because they were just slapping paint all over the walls. Mrs. Potter didn't seem to trust the boys with anything else. That was because she was too attached to the rest of the house. And the boys didn't have the greatest record on keeping their hands to themselves when it came to paint. Or anything else for that matter.

The outside of the mansion was all white. The front door had a little patio with it and a little roof that was supported by Roman columns. You almost expected the inside to be a temple for gods, like you'd just walked into Rome. The windows were like those of Colonial times. They had little latches on the insides to open them. In fact one was opened in James's room to let the gentle breeze of summer in. It was so--- wait a second. James's window was open! Yes! That had to be it!

"Easy, stupid. We fly."

"Fly? James, are you expecting us to sprout wings just before we fall?"

"No. _Hello!_ What do you have in you hand?"

"My broomstick. Shooting Arrow 2. Equipped with the best---"

"Exactly," James interrupted, glancing around excitedly. "You fly you broom up to the window, climb in, and we're all set to see this luncheon."

"Oh..." Sirius said, putting the pieces of the puzzle together. "But how are we going to get into the luncheon without being seen by your parents?"

James stared at him for a second. He seemingly was trying to put together a plan that would work in a matter of twenty seconds.

"If only I had an invisibility cloak," he muttered to himself quietly.

"Maybe we could fly our broomsticks above the room around the ceiling."

James's eyebrows formed a frown that made his nose look very wrinkled.

"Sirius are you _thick?_ There are _MUGGLES_ in the ballroom!"

Sirius looked at his feet, as though ashamed that he had suggested something so out there. But his sorrowful look quickly vanished as a light bulb went off in his head.

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"Lily, I specifically wanted _french_ toast, not _toasted_ toast! French toast!", Petunia exclaimed, disgusted with the plate in front of her. She was so loud about it, Lily thought. She was sure people could hear Petunia in her room from Scotland.

"Yes, 'Tunia," Lily sighed, wanting to blast "'Tunia" to the moon.

"And not just _any_ french toast! It has to have cinnamon! You hear me? Cinna--"

"Cinnamon!I heard you," Lily finished for her, backing out of her sister's room, "I can hear _pretty_ well, you know!"

"Well, if you don't learn to take instructions and not smart-mouth to me, I'll finish off your hearing _for_ you!" Petunia yelled, the rage showing on her swelled face. If Lily hadn't been very angry also, the sight of Petunia's face would have set off a fist of giggles. It was swelling to the size of a big, red, hot air balloon in a matter of seconds.

Lily couldn't believe this. Just because she was younger, she always got pushed around! It _wasn't_ fair!

But there was nothing she could do. Petunia had the better of her. She sulkily started down the stairs and made her way into the kitchen, the large tray in her hands almost had her collapse under its weight. She heated the griddle, silently wishing Petunia away, and put the batter on. Minutes later, she added the cinnamon, and gave it a swirling effect. Then she stomped back up the stairs, to be confused a moment later.

"Petunia! _You_ listen," She yelled with all the anger she could muster, entering her sister's bedroom, "This is the _last_ time I break my back for you! You're a spoiled---!"

But, by then it was too late. Her sister had disappeared.

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"Sirius, I can't believe I listened to you," James whispered, looking down at the black dress with a white frilly apron that clothed his body.

"Hey, did you have a better plan?" Sirius smiled, glancing at James' blond wig, "And, anyway, I think the look says _Y-O-U!_"

"That's not funny Miss Red-head. At least if this wig starts actually growing hair, I'll be able to hide the gray hairs better!" James shot back, laughing out loud at his own comment. He sounded like his next-door neighbor...silly and petty.

Sirius thought about it for a second, not really absorbing all the information. Then after he realized what James was saying, he started doubling over too.

"Ssshhhh..." James hushed him, peering outside of his bedroom door for a sign of any life.

"Alright. I'm shhh-ing!"

James put a finger to his lips making a quiet sign, and then twisted his head around the door frame, keeping an eye out for any maids...or his parents...or a muggle...or...

Suddenly James was now located in a heap on the floor.

"The coast is clear already!" Sirius complained towering over James.

"Fine...you don't have to be so pushy about it!"

"I'm just getting this plan underway. I don't really feel like sitting in our room all day."

"You don't seem to mind it when there's nothing to do at your house!" James snapped.

"Alright, you win, whatever," a defeated Sirius replied.

"Yup, and you know it!" the blond-wigged boy smugly grinned.

"Shut your trap." the red-head muttered.

"Sure, sure," James said good-naturedly.

Both boys gave up on mocking the other. It took to much thought and energy to think up a good insult the other hadn't already used.

Then, they left James' room and set out for the downstairs parlor. They were approaching the spiral staircase when, quite suddenly, James heard footsteps growing increasingly louder behind them until—

"_Sirius_, in here!" James hoarsely whispered as he pulled him by his blouse collar into the musty, old storage closet.

"_Woah_. That was close," Sirius wiped his brow for emphasis.

"No kidding," his companion responded looking around at the sky-high shelves of cleaning supplies.

"What are you looking for?"

"Something that will make us look more like maids."

He climbed one of the shelves carefully, but was as swift as a chimp climbing a tree.

"Careful, James. If you fall our parents will _kill us_." Sirius said uncharacteristically concerned.

James just climbed higher and rolled his eyes, "Well if I fall from here, idiot, I'll probably die instantly anyways, so that won't be my problem."

"What, you don't care what happens to me after you die? Some friend you are!" Sirius faked a pout.

James jumped down from the rafter, repelling like a rock climber, his left hand full, decided to play along.

"I die and you worry about what's going to happen to _you_? I'm _insulted_."

Sirius innocently changed the subject.

"What are those?" He asked pointing towards James' hand.

"Feather dusters. Quite odd since they're dusty themselves." he answered, handing Sirius a battered duster.

"Poofy thing, it is," Sirius brought the the feathers up to his nose, and sniffed. He repulsed the smell and immediately began to cough. "_Ug_, ugh, ug! Smells, ug, like my grandma's perfume. _Ugh, ug!_ Nasty!"

"Duh, Sirius. Let's go." And with that, he barged the door open and crept out.

James and Sirius walked down the long hallways for a while. On the way, they tried to dust everything in sight. Including couches and their pillows.

"Have you ever dusted before, James?"

"No, have you?"

"I don't think so. That's my mom's job."

Ring.

"Sirius! Don't answer it." James cautioned him immediately.

"Why?"

Ring.

"Because... it's my house and I said so."

Ring.

"Fine. _You_ answer it. Someone's got to."

"But what if it's someone that knows my voi--"

Ring.

"Just answer it, James. The sound's annoying me."

"Fine, fine," James picked up the phone and summoned himself to speak in a high-pitched voice, "Hello, Potter Residence. May I ask who's calling please?"

-----------------------

"Petunia! Stop playing around! Please Petunia!" Lily yelled, hoping that this was her sister's idea of a game. "Petunia! Come out, come out wherever you are!"

She went on calling for quite some time, almost losing her voice. Finally, she decided that is might as well call for some help.

"Mum and Dad. No matter much they'll kill me I have to call them," She thought aloud.

She rushed downstairs and into the somewhat shabby living room. Lily reached timidly for the telephone receiver, afraid that by the time her parents were finished with her, she wouldn't be able to reach for the telephone anymore. Then she remembered that there was a situation at hand, and quickly pulled open the mahogany drawer and looked for her father's address book. The Potters number was in the very front. Obviously.

"Potters...Potters...Potter, Daniel...there it is!"

She dialed the number as quickly as her little fingers would allow her. The dial tone started..."Pick up, pick up, pick up..." She waited impatiently. "You have to pick up," She kept muttering to herself.

"Hello, Potter Residence. May I ask who's calling please?" A screechy voice answered. Lily compulsively moved her ear away from the phone. She didn't exactly want to hear that kind of voice in the morning.

Woah, Lily thought. You'd think the Potters had enough money that they could hire someone to answer the phone who's voice didn't sound like nails on a chalkboard. Honestly.

"Um. Hello," Lily started, having been brought up to be polite she decided not to comment on the lady's lack of vocal ability, "I'm Lily Evans. Uh, do you think you could get my parents for me? They're at the luncheon or whatever was going on today. It's...well...it's sort of an emergency."

The "woman's" voice spoke up again, "Of course dearie. That would be Mr. and Mrs. Evans I presume?"

Lily heard a hushed voice in the background say, "What, are you trying to be, a kind, old, sweet nanny of sorts?" And was followed by some muffled laughter.

"Uh, yeah...Thank you," Lily responded and hung up the phone.

She really hoped her parents got the message. Whoever answered the phone better be reliable. Or Lily was going to have to do some serious screaming at the top of her lungs.

-----------------------

James looked up at Sirius in distress. "How are we going to tell her parents to call her?" James asked him, seemingly upset.

"We'll tell them when we get to the ballroom." Sirius answered him, showing plainly on his face that he thought James had completely lost his mind. It was so simple. "You just go up to the Evans and say, 'Hello, your daughter called and would like to speak to you.' Wasn't it Evans, right?"

James mirrored Sirius' look. Sirius was always forgetting to think logically. What if his parents recognized him? What someone else recognized him? He would be embarrassed for the rest of his life. On the other hand, if he got through this he would be a legend. Well, not really. He'd be a legend to Sirius and himself at least. "Sirius, someone will see us and know it's us. That's what always happens."

"And your point is?" Sirius inquired skillfully. He was no prat. He knew exactly how to trick James into things he would never normally do.

"Um..."

"No point then, eh? Let's go." He finished as he dragged James off before he could say another word.

They reached the ballroom almost too quickly. The huge golden doors were just ahead of them, and the boys stopped to peer into their windows.

When they looked inside, there must have been a hundred people in there. Everyone was just standing around and talking. How boring is that, Sirius thought. I came here for nothing.

They were in complete awe when they stepped into the ballroom. It didn't look like it normally did. A huge buffet table was to their left, with any type of food you could ever imagine on it. The diamond chandeliers had been replaced with ordinary crystal ones. The walls of the ballroom no longer consisted of different patterns, but stood tall like milky white clouds. And the ceilings no longer had a sparkle to them. It looked like any run-of-the-mill, rich muggle's ballroom. It disturbed James greatly.

James managed to spot his father sitting at one of the many French renaissance tables in the hall. He noticed a man with a pencil who was writing furiously as though he had the next big story on his hands. Reporter, James labeled him in his brain. James smoothed out his skirt and grabbed Sirius' arm, guiding him in the direction of his father. "This way," he hissed.

Just as he reached his father, he heard a huge thud over at the buffet table. He whipped his head around so fast that his blond wig almost came off. Sirius followed the same suite. The boom had occurred at the punch table, and following that a muffled cry of pain was heard.

Mr. Potter looked over to see what the commotion was about, and noticed that one of his maids that had just walked in had a little bit of black hair poking out of her red hair. Just as he was about to approach the maid, the man next of him yelled out, "PETUNIA?"

The Evans were the first to rush over along with the Potters. A man known as Albus Dumbledore helped Petunia to her feet. Her brown hair matted to her face, and white clothes now flushed with a pink tint, she murmured under her breath, "I hate you, Lily."

"Are you all right?" Dumbledore asked in a kindly tone.

"Petunia? Are you okay, darling? What's wrong? How did you get here?" Christine Evans asked, spitting our all those questions in less then 10 seconds, "You must have fallen about thirty feet!"

"Yes, mother. I'm alright, except I have a bit of a --"

She fainted on the spot.

"She fainted!" Someone called out.

"Call an ambulance!"

"Someone get the phone!"

"Quick! We've not much time!"

Mr. Potter held up his hand. "Not to worry. I'll take care of it."

Sirius and James still stood there in motionless horror.

"Michelle, dear, could you get those two maids over there," he pointed his wife to James and Sirius and winked, sounding a bit angry, "I'm sure they could help us out."

"Of course, dear. Blondie and Red-head. Got it." And the Potters went up to a guest room, with the Evans and the boys. Dumbledore placed Petunia gently on the bed.

Mr. Potter addressed the "maids" while Mrs. Potter ordered a house-elf (in the hall, so the Evans couldn't see, mind you) to get a pitcher of cold water. "Which one of you did it?"

"What do you mean, sir?" Sirius asked looking very surprised.

"Out with it boys. I know you aren't maids. Do I look that stupid?"

"But, Dad, WE DIDN'T DO THIS!" James said, almost pouting.

"Who else would have—," Mr. Potter began, but was soon enough interrupted.

A tall, thin figure appeared next to him. His eyes wandered to the girl lying before him and his robes of deep purple seemed to sparkle as he moved toward the girl in question. At once, James considered him the oddest, yet most powerful wizard he had ever witnessed.

"They did not bring the girl here," Dumbledore quietly stated.

"Then how did she get here?" Mrs. Potter chimed in.

Albus Dumbledore turned to Mr. and Mrs. Evans. "You are the parents of Lily Evans, are you not?"

They nodded slowly wondering what this had to do with anything.

"Congratulations. Your daughter, Lily, has been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You should be very proud. She should be receiving her letter tomorrow since Minvera and I were unable to send them today." Dumbledore smiled at them.

The room was silent.

Mr. Evans broke the silence with no sign of hesitation.

"Excuse me?"

He made it quite clear that he did not understand a single word the man had just said.

"Your daughter is a witch," Dumbledore stated plainly, "Believe it or not, she is a witch none the less."

"But we haven't had a witch," Mr. Evans sputtered, "since my Great--"

"--Great Auntie Elm," Dumbledore finished, his blue eyes beginning to sparkle, "And what a sweet lady she was, too. But that is beside the point. The reason your daughter is here right now is a result of your other daughter."

"So you're saying the girl-- their daughter," Mr. Potter corrected himself, "Lily, sent her sister here."

"That is exactly what I am saying."

As the three men went on with their conversation, Sirius and James sat down and stayed quiet. There was no way they were going to miss this.

After hearing several squeaking noises outside the bedroom, Mrs. Potter realized it was the house-elf calling. Fetching the water from the young elf, and giving her an, "That will be all," she stepped back into the room and handed the pitcher over to Mrs. Evans.

Then, a quick splash later, Petunia woke up with a startled snort. The boys tried to hide their muffled giggles under stiff coughs as the Potters turned around and gave them silencing looks. They quieted, and stole a quick look at Dumbledore. They noticed he looked as though he was trying to mask the laughter that shone in his eyes.

"Petunia?" Her mother asked out hopefully.

Slowly, she began to respond. "Mum? Dad? Where am I?"

"Oh, don't you worry about that dear. Just rest your eyes. We'll be on our way home in no time." Mrs. Evans cooed.

Mr. Evans stuck out his hand to Mr. Potter. "Thank you for your hospitality. Michelle, always a pleasure. "And he kissed her on the cheek. Then he put out his hand to someone else. He felt very awkward all the same. "Mr. Dumbledore, it was," he paused for just a second, "Very nice to meet you."

Dumbledore extended his own hand and grasped Mr. Evan's. His eyes twinkled almost eerily, it was unnerving. "I daresay we shall meet again."

And with that, the Evans left.

When they reached home, Petunia was sent straight to bed, still completely bitter towards Lily. Lily was then brought in, and explained of what had happened to her "dear" sister. Lily was nearly as confused as her parents.

But just as Dumbledore had promised, a letter reached their house the next afternoon. Although it came by an unusual way (by owl), the letter stated in shining green ink, just below the school and headmaster's crest:

_Dear Miss Lily Evans,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Also find enclosed directions to where you can find these things. _

_Term begins September 1st. We await your owl no longer than July 31st._

_Yours Sincerely,_

_Minvera McGonagall_

_Deputy Headmistress _

Lily was in awe. So this is what they meant by witches and wizards. How completely amazing.

"Oh look," Petunia said in mock happiness, glancing over her sister's shoulder, "You got a freakishly grand surprise."

"Not as freakish as your birth, though." Lily grumbled under her breath.

Michael Evans looked at Petunia in horror. "Petunia, you are grounded for today. How dare you say something like that to your sister? It is an HONOR to be a witch. I don't want to hear you talking like that again!"

It was obvious that his Great Auntie Elm was someone he valued dearly and held in high respects.

Petunia sulkily took herself upstairs, not daring to disobey her father, but muttering under her breath the whole way.

Mrs. Evans spoke up. "Lily, that's wonderful, dear, that you've been accepted. We'll have to write to the school and tell them you'll accept."

Lily didn't speak.

Christine's smile faltered. "Unless...you don't want to go?"

"No...It's not that Mum...it's just," she hesitated, trying to think of the right way to put it, "How do you know this really exists?" she glanced at her letter again, struggling with the right pronunciation, "And what's Dia—gon Alley?"

"Ahhh...Diagon Alley," her father sighed, "I forgot about that place. I went there once with my Auntie Elm. She had to get a certain kind of medicine that we can't make. We non-wizards that is...but what did she call me to another wizard? The word escapes me now."

His wife shot him a glance, and he got right back on track. "How do I know it's real, Lil, you ask? Becuase, I've seen it. It is, by far, one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. You'll love being a witch, Lily. I know it."

Lily still looked uncertain.

"Hey, why don't we go to Diagon Alley today to get your things? Then you can see it all for yourself, hon." Mrs. Evans suggested. Mr. Evans smiled. It was great to have a wife who read minds.

Lily looked fairly enthusiastic about this. "Can we really? That would be absolutely perfect!"

"Here's the plan, then. I'll watch Petunia, while you two go to get your school things. How about if I don't write to Hogwarts until you two come back?" Mrs. Evans said making a compromise.

"Sure, Mum. That'd be wonderful."

Lily grinned. She was going to Diagon Alley.


	4. Chapter 4 Knuts and Blackhaired Boys

_**Hypocrites Always Fall in Love**_

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of this (except most of the plot, and the characters you don't recognize). It all belongs to the _amazing _J.K. Rowling.

**Chapter 4**- Knuts and Black-haired Boys

London was just like any other city. Loud and crowded at times, but in a charming way. The city amused Lily to any extent. Lily had been to London numerous times, but even so she was still captivated by the streets, huge signs, tourist-attracting shops, and utter chaos. She was always spell-bound by it, even though lived right outside of London for her father's business reasons.

It was swarming with so many people and rushed faces that Lily could barely soak it all in, let alone walk properly.

"Hey, little girl, watching you're going!" A young man, looking refined in his business suit, scolded her as she bumped into him head first.

She felt her father grip her hand tightly, and drag her away.

"Sorry, sir!" Lily called. Someone hasn't had their morning coffee, she thought.

As the man angrily walked away, he noticed a rain cloud just over his head. He began jumping up and down, (and saying a number of bad words that won't be written here) while hopping away from the little gray cloud. It was pouring down hot coffee on him!

People stopped to stare at the sight of a running man being chased by a puff of fog raining down some obscene brown liquid. One store owner even grabbed a mug, stood on her front stoop, and held the cup under the moving mass.

"Ahhh...nothing like black coffee in the morning," she smiled as she sipped it. Many just froze, dumbfounded, others astonished. Rain clouds just didn't do such nonsense!

Lily, having been whisked away by her father, knew nothing of the sort had happened, and continued on her merry way to Diagon Alley.

Mr. Evans and his daughter soon found themselves standing outside a dirty, old building among other vacant shops. The windows were dark, as if it had been abandon for quite a few years. Lily stopped in her tracks, waiting for her father to say something.

"This is it," he said simply.

Lily shot him a questioning look. "Are you kidding me?"

"Nope. According to the map, and my memory, this is the place, kiddo," he said, smiling at her as they stepped through the dusty doorway. "Don't worry. It's more impressive in the actual alley."

It can't get more impressive than this, she thought. Her father was such a loony. Honestly.

People (and many other creatures) glanced up quickly to see who had come in. They went back to their respective conversations almost instantly. A pair of young boys and their mother at one of the tables caught Lily's eyes.

"A pair of muggles, no doubt," the older boy whispered, "How do you think they would have gotten here?"

"I don't know, Sirius. But obviously, they do not belong here," his mother said sighing, "Must you ask so many questions?"

The woman looked disgustedly at Lily and her father's choice of clothing.

"Yep. Or else I'm not ever going to know anything," he replied.

The woman laughed. At that exact moment the younger boy tugged at her sleeve.

"Mom! Mom! Can I get a broom today? You said I could have one!"

"Yes, Regulus," the woman responded, exasperated, "You can get a broomstick today."

Lily watched from afar. Muggles? Broomsticks? Maybe her father wasn't the loony one around here.

"What about my stuff for school?" the Sirius character whined.

"Well, how about this boys?" their mother proposed expertly, "I'll take Regulus to get his broomstick and you go get some of your school things, Sirius?"

The woman handed Sirius a brass key. "Now don't you lose that, you hear?"

She stood up and motioned for the boys to so the same. They began walking towards the door, away from Lily and her father.

"Come on, Dad," Lily said grabbing her gapping father's sleeve, extinguishing his thoughts about old childhood memories. She began leading him in the direction of the Sirius, Regulus, and their mother.

The three of them headed outside, closely followed by Lily and Mr. Evans. Lily wasn't sure why she felt the sudden urge to follow them in the first place. She felt foolish for doing so, but decided that maybe these people knew about wizards and witches and stuff. She could always ask them...

They reached a brick wall, and Lily watched the woman carefully, to make sure that her eyes weren't deceiving her.

The boys' mother pulled a bit of wood out of her pocket and muttered some words under her breath, pointing straight at the wall.

Lily blinked uncontrollably. Was she really seeing the wall turn into an archway? She rubbed her eyes, and quickly turned, looking at her father in disbelief. He just grinned again.

"And this would be Diagon Alley, Lil," he whispered.

She smiled at him, "So you weren't kidding me?"

"Please hold your applause until the end of the trip. Thank you, thank you very much," her father boasted, smiling some more.

Lily turned away from her father for a second to get a better look at Diagon Alley.

It was completely amazing. There must have been twenty-some shops lined crookedly up the graystone road. Thousands of signs flooded into view. Advertisements for cauldrons, "All-new, blood-free, sweet butterbeer," a place called "Frido's Old Ye Prank Shoppe." And there were very odd-looking people in long cloaks. In the middle of summer too! It was enough to make Lily's head spin.

She was quickly snapped out of her trace as the boys and the mother in front of her walked through the threshold. She watched them part, the older one giving the younger one a goodbye punch in the shoulder to provoke him. After a mild scolding and the breaking up of a promising fight, the older boy steered right, while the younger one and his mother kept moving straight. The mother grabbed the young one's arm to stop him, and called out to the other.

"Sirius! We'll meet you at Flourish & Blott's in an hour. That's half past one."

The woman then followed the younger son to their destination, "Quality Quidditch Supplies."

Sirius nodded mutely, and continued to walk dejectedly in the direction he'd been walking before. Lily noticed that his head drooped sadly as he carried on, hands in his pockets.

Lily felt awfully sorry for him. She put her hands in her own pockets, and she and her father began to walk through the barrier together.

She could just barely see Sirius through the crowd of people. He disappeared behind a middle-aged woman with a vulture hat and bright red purse, who was clutching a young boy's hand. Going, going... gone.

"So..." she turned to her father, "Where should we go first?"

"Why don't we start at the Apothecary?" her father asked, trying to contain his own excitement to a minimum, reading one of the signs.

"Okay," the young girl agreed.

No more quickly had they turned to the right, they came upon the place they were looking for. "Apothecary" was spelled out in silver letters on the logo above it's doorway.

Her father had already gone into the shop, glancing around. He stopped and paused at the unicorn horns in the back.

Lily rushed up the cobblestone leading to the door, eager to see what the wizarding world had in store for her next. She peered inside and was amazed at what she saw. Thousands of bottled fluids and materials for making potions lay before her eyes. Things called unicorn hairs, beetle eyes, and goblin finger nails...

She almost instantly spotted Sirius, who was trying to pay for a potions kit of some sort.

"I'm afraid that's not enough to pay for your things, boy. You'll have to stop by Gringotts for more money or find your parents," the man at the counter was saying.

"But sir--!" Sirius began to protest...

"I'm terribly sorry, but I can't help you." And with that, the man handed Sirius back his bronze and silver pieces.

Lily was completely confused. What was Gringotts? And were those pieces in the boy's hand?

She must have looked curious too, because when Sirius spotted her staring at him, as he put his money back in his pocket, he asked her pointedly, "What're you looking at?"

"Oh-- uh...nothing," Lily replied, feeling quite stupid for staring.

"Hey," Sirius said, finally recognizing her, "You're that muggle I saw in the Leaky Cauldron!"

"Er..." Lily wasn't sure how to respond. "What's a muggle? And the Leaky Cauldron?"

"Wow, you must be a muggleborn, aren't you?" he smiled and laughed, thinking that for once, he wasn't the clueless one. "A muggle is a non-magical person, and the Leaky Cauldron is that place you just came from."

Then he pointed to the entrance of the alley.

"You mean that...that...place with all the," she hesitated, "--funny people?"

"Yeah," he said, his face scrunched up like he was thinking really hard, "They are funny, huh?"

"Uh-huh," she replied, she face turning a bit red, making her round eyes more noticeable in contrast, "But I'm not a muggle."

"Who are you then?"

"Lily Evans," she said simply, "So that makes you--?"

Sirius froze. Why did that name sound so familiar? Did her know her from somewhere? But he just couldn't, seeing as she was a muggleborn. So then how--

"Are you okay?" Lily asked, looking a bit concerned that he was zoning out on her.

"Uh...sure. Your name just sounded--"

"Like you had heard it before?" she finished, catching his drift.

"Yeah," he nodded, and then stood proudly, "And I'm Sirius Black."

Then there was silence. Just for a moment. Neither was exactly sure what to say to the other. This proved the fact that even when you were an eleven-year-old chatterbox, you could still run out of things to day.

"So... uh..." Lily had always tried to avoid those words at all costs. She, like many others, didn't like long periods of quiet... you think too much.

Besides babble and small talk seemed pointless to her. Being no witless young girl, she hardly made small talk anyway. Lily had something to say when she started a conversation with you. She did not usually go up to people and start talking for the charm of hearing her voice. Now she felt like a hypocrite who had no idea what to say to this cute, dark-haired boy.

Sirius stared back at the flustered girl, and began to feel his own cheeks turning red. This type of thing does not happen to Sirius Black, he thought, and grinned off the twinge of embarrassment quickly.

Then he opened his mouth to speak--

"Lily?" her father called from the counter, as she whirled around at the sound of his voice.

Apparently, during Lily and Sirius's enlightening conversation, Mr. Evans had been having a nice little chat with the cashier at the register. The young man, Morpis, as her father had called him, told him about the place that Lily had been wondering about since Sirius mentioned it. Gringotts. It was a wizarding bank, which explained the weird money that lay in Sirius's pocket.

"We ought to go there, Lil. You have to get money to pay for your school things," her father pointed out.

Then, of course, the next words out of his mouth had to be; "Now who is this new friend of yours?"

It was enough to make Lily's eyes roll. Sirius wasn't exactly a friend. Yet. He was some kid she had just met.

For all I know, he could be an ax-murder in a kid's body, she thought. Psychopaths were pretty tricky in this decade. Like trying to find a certain hippie in a whirlwind of peace, tie-dye, and hair. Not that she really thought he could be insane. He was too cute for that.

So she didn't completely mind when her father invited Sirius to come to Gringott's with them. Besides, he looked pretty lonely before she introduced herself.

And on the way to the bank, Lily found that talking to Sirius wasn't as hard as she though it would be. He was actually pretty funny at times.

And Sirius thought that Lily wasn't half bad either. He could talk to her about, you know, stuff. Like the things he talked to James about. He had never spoken to a girl before without feeling that the conversation was a bit strained (not that he realized that exactly at his age, but you get the idea). The girls he knew, like his cousins for example, were interested in lip gloss and being as nice as possible to all boys. It puzzled Sirius to no end. But Lily. She was neat. She wasn't so hard to understand. Why couldn't all girls be like her?

So Sirius was in the middle of telling Lily about yesterday's adventure when he realized why Lily's name sounded familiar, and why Mr. Evans knew who he was, and looked like he knew him from somewhere.

He almost choked when he tried to speak.

"You...you..." he pointed at Mr. Evans in an act of realization.

"Me," Mr. Evans smiled knowingly.

Sirius turned to Lily. "And you...you were the girl on the phone, weren't you?"

Lily just looked puzzled, not catching on yet.

"...When you called the Potters about your sister..." he said, trying to help Lily out.

"Oh!" she replied, finally understanding, "So that's how you knew him, huh, Dad?"

"Of course. I wouldn't extend an invitation to a person I didn't know," her father answered, glancing down the road, "Look, Gringotts. It's just ahead!"

And so it was. The three had reached a enormously tall building, taller than all the shops in the alley. Because of it's height it looked widely out of place. The other little builings seemed to cower under it.

The bank was the purest color white Lily had ever seen. Next to the magnificent bronze doors, the creature, guarding the them looked even more out of place.

"What is that... person?" Lily inquired to Sirius, looking completely surprised beyond belief.

Sirius just laughed a little bit and replied, "Haven't you seen a goblin before?"

"Not exactly," Lily answered. "The only thing I've seen remotely familiar to a goblin is a kid in a halloween costume."

Sirius just smiled at her. "Oh, yeah! I forgot. You wouldn't have seen those before, then, would you, Lily?"

She rolled her eyes out of exasperation. "Obviously."

Mr. Evans smiled fondly at the pair. You could tell that these two were friends in the making. Lily's sassiness verses Sirius's humor made them a funny bunch to watch.

He pondered the idea some more. Yes, it would be good for Lily to go to Hogwarts and make new friends. He wanted his daughter to be happy. He just hoped that this trip to Diagon Alley and the potentially new friend would be enough to talk her into going to Hogwarts. Let's face it, as much as he wanted his daughter to be happy, he was only human. He had always dreamed of being a wizard, ever since he Auntie Elm. Like must fathers, he had high hopes for his daughter. Of course, he wasn't going to force her to be a witch. Her happiness was more important than his own dreams for his daughter.

"Is he coming in?" Sirius whispered to Lily. The two of them had reached the doors, but Mr. Evans seemed to be in a daze a few feet away.

"I certainly hope so. I don't like to spend time alone with weird people I don't know," Lily replied back.

Sirius still stared at her father, and smiled, turning to her, "Yeah? Well your dad seems pretty weird to me."

"Oh, really?" she began to sound a bit defensive.

"Calm down, Evans. It was just a joke," he said, not wanting her to be upset. He actually wanted to be friends with her ---wait--- did he really just think that?

Sirius signaled Lily to wait there, and he left her to walk up to Mr. Evans, who was glazing in the opposite direction.

"Uh... Mr. Evans?" he waved his hands in front of the man's face, "Anyone home?"

"Oh.. um, Sirius. Yes. Let's go to Gingotts." Lily's father answered him. Then he set off for--

"Hey Mr. Evans?" Sirius called as he walked away.

"Yes, Sirius?"

"The bank's this way," he said, pointing in the other direction.

"Oh..." Mr. Evans turned a little red, looking quite embarrassed, "I knew that."

"Okay, Mr. Evans," Sirius said as they approached Lily, and she rolled her eyes.

--------------------

The inside of Gringotts wasn't like anything Lily and ever seen before. Marble floors, golden pillars, and those thing Sirius had labeled as "goblins."

Mr. Evans began to walk towards the counters, and glanced at Sirius as if to make sure he was headed in the right direction. Sirius nodded in response.

As Lily's father reached the marble counter, the goblin looked up from his copy of "The Daily Prophet."

"Yes?"

"Er...Hello, my daughter," he said motioning to Lily, behind him, "would like to open an account here."

"What is the amount she will be placing in it?" The goblin asked lazily, still gazing at the paper.

"Well, I'd say about--," he turned to Sirius, "250 pounds?"

Sirius shrugged back in response, "Sorry, I don't do muggle money."

"250 pounds sounds suffice, sir," the goblin replied, finally putting the newspaper down, "Anything else?"

Sirius stepped forward, "Yes, I need to go to vault 532." And he placed his key on the counter. The goblin extracted it quickly, and handed it to another goblin.

"Kingsloff will escort you to your proper vaults."

"Thank you," Mr. Evans said with a simple smile, "Let's go kids."

The ride in the cart was a little shaky, and much to fast. Let's keep in mind that that was only Sirius's opinion. Lily and her father on the other hand, thoroughly enjoyed the ride, and were never less pleased when they realized the ride was over. Everyone's money in their respective pockets, they returned back to the streets of the alley to get school supplies.

-------------------

James grumbled as he made his way down the crowded alley. Yesterday's adventure had gotten him a horrible punishment. He was to stay at home for the next two weeks, and hadn't even been able to Diagon Alley with Sirius like they had planned. Instead, Sirius had gone with his parents, and James was to go with his. Supposedly they didn't want James and Sirius to get into any trouble. Ha! There were still a million ways from James to get in trouble, even if his parents did happen to have him chained to their wrists. Well, holding his hands so he couldn't get away, but same difference.

His parents dragged him along to Gringotts, where he saw a man dressed in muggle clothes, with two children. A red-headed girl, and...Sirius?

He blinked. Sirius? He blinked again. It couldn't be.

And this girl. He had seen her somewhere before, he knew it. _But where?_

---------------------

Lily, Sirius, and her father walked down the steps of the bank to the street shops. Mr. Evans was staring at a map of Diagon Alley, looking thoroughly confused. Sirius was explaining all the wizarding money to Lily, which made it seem even more frustrating for her to understand.

"No, Lily, the little bronze pieces are called knuts," Sirius explained, patiently, pointing to the pieces in her hand.

"Knuts?" Lily replied, the new word feeling foreign in her mouth, "So, did I say it right?"

"Yes, Lily. Twenty-nine kunts is equal to one sickle. Or was it thrity-one?" Sirius asked himself, scratching his head.

"You can't remember what your own money is worth? My God, Sirius, get help." Lily said in annoyance.

Sirius looked up at her, grinning mischievously.

"It's not exactly the easiest thing to remember.

"Then what is? Tell me, oh Great One," Lily teased, looking ready to laugh herself.

"Quidditch rules, of course."

"Quidditch? What's that?"

Sirius's smile fell.

"You don't know what quidditch is?"

He sounded appalled.

"Do enlighten us then, Sirius. I think I may remember hearing a few things about it, back in the day," Mr. Evans intervened.

Lily took one look at Sirius's face and could tell that is was going to be one long conversation.

"Well," he started, "Quidditch is the most amazing sport ever. It's played on----OY! JAMES!"

James quickly turned his head back, to see Sirius far off in the crowd. He gave Sirius a gloomy wave as his parents dragged him off to another antique shop.

"Oookay," Sirius said, turning back to the Evans.

"I see your friend James got his punishment for sneaking out of your house yesterday," Mr. Evans replied, looking amused.

"Yeah, I guess he did."

Now that made Sirius feel a little bad. Here he was having fun with these new people, and meanwhile his best friend is all by himself. Well, without friends that is because technically speaking his parents were with him so he wasn't all alone and--

"So, back to quidditch..." Sirius said.

After a long(it had taken them through Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions "She's cut my hand off!" "Hold still, or your toes are next, Flourish and Blott's picture a pyramid of ink bottles... with Sirius at the foot of it, and the Apothecary "You still don't have enough to buy the kit... Wait! Just kidding!") and confusing (because Sirius was explaining it) conversation about quidditch, Lily and her father came out of it feeling much more knowledgeable. About Quidditch, that is.

"_Oy_! I was supposed to meet my mom fifteen minutes ago at the paper store!" Sirius cried, as Lily's father stated the time.

"Then you'd better hop to it, Sirius," Mr. Evans replied.

"Uh-huh," then Sirius began to run down the street, "See you on the Hogwarts Express, Lily Evans!"

"Bye, Sirius!" Lily called back.

"So..." Mr. Evans started conversationally, as Sirius disappeared into the crowd of people, "I guess all we have left to do is get your wand."

"I suppose," Lily said, watching the people pass her by on the street.

"Do you not want to get a wand, Lil?" her father asked, hoping for a certain answer.

"No, I do want a wand."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

Lily laughed with her father. Then she followed him through the clusters of goblins, witches, wizards, and many others.

When they reached the shop, Ollivander's- Makers of Fine Wands since 382 BC. Lily was almost afraid to go in. It looked pleasant enough. Although, maybe a bit old and dusty, and out of date, it seemed perfectly normal in its surroundings.

So why was she so afraid to go in? While she stood unsure, her father's eyes sparkled with anticipation. Why hadn't he been the wizard in the family? He was the one who loved the whole idea. Not that it wasn't growing on Lily, but what happened if his was just so kind of illusion that she would wake up from tomorrow morning?

Lily grabbed the brass handle of the wooden door and pulled.

Someone greeted her at the counter.

"Fancy seeing you here, Miss. Evans," a middle-aged man greeted her cheerfully.

Lily stood with her mouth wide open, as though she had been turned to stone.

"How...how do you know my name?"

"I know you, because I knew your Great-aunt. Last I saw her, about three years ago, she was raving about you and your sister," he smiled knowingly, not even noticing that he was freaking Lily out, " I remember her first wand as well as I will remember yours thirty years from now."

"Oh. So you own this place."

"Yes, and my father before me, and my grandfather before him and so on," he replied.

"Now you need to be measured," he said summoning a magical tape-measure.

Mr. Evans watched interestedly in the single scarlet armchair. Lily could hear muffled laughs from her father as the measure went up to her hair and measured the size of her curls.

Lily batted the thing away when it started to measure the space between her eyes.

"Alright, alright, I think that's quite enough," Mr. Ollivander said as he pulled away the tape, "Now tell me, which hand is your wand hand?"

"Er... _wand hand?_" Lily replied feeling very confused.

"It's her right," her father chimed in from his chair.

"Now then..." Mr. Ollivander went over to his thousands of shelves. He read the labels and pulled out a single narrow box. "Try this, mahogany and unicorn heartstrings, 7 inches. Just wave it a bit."

He opened the narrow box to reveal... _a_ wooden stick? Lily picked it up and waved it anyway, while Mr. Evans sat on the edge of his seat.

Nothing happened.

"Okay," Mr. Ollivander took the wand back and picked out another box. "How about willow, 10 1/2 inches, swishy?

Lily placed the wand in her right hand, and looked to Mr. Ollivander for guidance.

"That's right, dear, just _wave_ it."

So she did. Suddenly she felt wonderfully happy. Like someone had just told her she could live off of double chocolate fudge brownies for the rest of her life.

"Yes! I believe we've found you a wand!" Mr. Ollivander said happily as Lily's father smiled hugely at her.

Later she found herself at home with her mother and father at the dinner table. Petunia had gone to a friend's house for dinner, which made the whole affair even sweeter.

"So Lily," her mother asked pointedly, "Have you decided if you will be going to Hogwarts?"

Her father crossed his fingers and toes underneath the kitchen table.

"Yes, I have," Lily said smiling, "I'm going."

Her father relaxed, and let out a laugh as her mother said, "Good for you, Lily! We're so _proud _of you."

For once, Lily felt that everything was right with the world. She was going to Hogwarts, so what could possibly go wrong?

------------------

James was still thinking about that girl with Sirius, as he lay in his bed, trying to fall asleep. How did he know her? And where did he know her from?

As he drifted off, it all seemed to come back to him...

He was floating...

...he was at Hogwarts...

**Hogwarts?**

_James ran as fast as he could down the deserted corridors, waking up the paintings as he ran by. He just had to find her, he thought as he rounded the corner, almost crashing into a suit of armor. He couldn't let it end like this, he didn't want her to hate him anymore. _

_"Mr. Potter!" Professor McGonagall yelled in fury, interrupting his thoughts, "What are you doing running in the halls this late at night? You've done crazy things before, but really, this time you have gone--"_

_He ran past her and called, "I'll explain later, Professor!" _

_"Potter! Potter!" she yelled even more enraged. But she wasn't about to run after him. "Damn boy," she mumbled, then yawning, heading to Professor Dumbledore's chambers to talk about James Potter and her early retirement._

_James rushed on, not fazed at all that he had just been caught by a professor, and hadn't even stopped to bid them a 'good-night.' There was also the fact that he was definitely going to get a huge detention sentence the next morning at breakfast._

_That's when he saw her. She was huddled next to the statue of Morgana, her face hidden. James could tell she was crying, even though she was doing it silently. He didn't know how he knew, he just seemed to have this sort of 'sixth sense' when he was around her. The sight of her crying was something that would haunt him forever._

_"Why are you crying?" he asked her softly, sitting down next to her._

_"Nothing." was the reply, "Just go away, James."_

_She turned away from him swiftly. He was surprised that she didn't get whip-lash._

_"No, something's got to be wrong, or else you wouldn't be crying," he said, brushing her curly her hair out of her eyes, and behind her ear, "Was it something I said?"_

_She looked up into his eyes and immediately regretted it. His hazel eyes looked so honest, and caring. She quickly looked away._

_"Maybe," she spoke quietly, "Well... partly because of that."_

"James!" someone called from far away, "James!"

He turned his head, and found himself awake. It was morning. Morning, already? Oh great, more dreams about the Lily-girl, of whom he had no idea who she was. He dismissed the dream quickly. He had things to do, pranks to pull. He just didn't have time to ponder dreams all day, he thought to himself as he got out of bed.

The dream lay forgotten.


	5. Chapter 5 Siriusly Mad

_**Hypocrites Always Fall in Love**_

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of this (except most of the plot, and the characters you don't recognize). It all belongs to the _amazing _J.K. Rowling.

**Chapter 5** - Siriusly Mad

The days to September first seemed to crawl by. Lily had marked off the days on her calendar, but they never seemed to come quickly enough. And the brutal name-calling from Petunia didn't help much, either. She had taken to referring to Lily only when necessary. She addressed her by saying, "What do you want, freak?"

Lily got used to it, of course. Although her parents said it was just another one of Petunia's teenage phases, Lily feared that they were wrong. That Petunia would be this was forever. She hated fight with her sister as much as she hated broccoli, and all Lily wanted was for her and her sister to be at peace, for once. But that seemed completely out of reach.

Eventually, the 1st of September did roll around, much to Lily's delight. She could not wait to find out more about Hogwarts School, witches, wizards, and the classes she would be taking. You could imagine how daunting it must have been for the young 11-year old.

Lily and her family, besides Petunia; how had simply refused to come and see the "freak" away, reached the space between Platforms 9 and 10 quickly enough.

Her mother worked up the courage to speak first.

"Lily, I wish we could stay and see you off--"

"It's okay, Mum," Lily replied glumly, "Really. I'll be quite fine on my own."

"We know Lily, but," her father started to say, but cut himself off abruptly.

It was her mother's turn to speak. Lily felt like saying, 'Speak now, or forever hold your peace!' But her parents' faces conveyed an enormous amount of worry and sadness, which told her not to interrupt.

"Do you know where your platform is?"

"Yes, Mum, and if I can't find it I can always ask someone," Lily replied, feeling that she was actually going to miss her parents. Somewhat.

"Don't go talking to strangers though, just to the security guards, understand?" she mother said, warning her quietly.

"Yes, Mum."

"Now, honey, we better get going," Mr. Evans stated to Mrs. Evans quietly.

"Yes, dear. In a minute," she said turning to look at Mr. Evans and then shifting back to her daughter. "Have a good term, Lulabell. And we'll miss you."

Lily rushed into her mother's open arms for a loving hug. Both women tried to hold back their tears by blinking rapidly.

"And we want you to come home for Christmas and tell us all about the wizarding world!" Mr. Evans added, smiling.

"Oh, honestly, Michael. Is that all you ever think about?" Lily's mother asked, breaking away from her daughter's warm embrace, as she moved on to her father.

"Not all the time. Just morning, noon, and night," he joked, trying to make the mood lighter as he closed his arms around his daughter, and kissing her on the cheek.

Mrs. Evans tutted loudly.

"Don't go getting into any trouble, and be careful, Lily."

"Get into all the trouble you possibly can, and be careful not to get caught," Mr. Evans whispered in Lily's ear as she parted.

Lily giggled. Her dad could be funny at times, she had to admit. And as they bid their last good-byes, Lily knew, as they walked away, she would miss them terribly. A horrible pang hit her heart. She wasn't sure if it was nerves, or the fact that she missed them already. She just tried to deal with it anyway.

The station was packed with people. There was no one who was dress like a wizard or wizard that Lily could pin-point to ask for directions. Lily looked at the ticket in her hand. Platform 9 and 3/4. What? There was no such thing, and if there was Lily certainly--

"Sirius, stay close! This station is full of filthy muggles, and I don't want you getting lost!" A middle-aged woman, looking very unpleasant, with dark brown hair exclaimed. She was clutching tightly to a boy Lily knew to be Sirius from the looks of it. His black hair was messy from his playing with it, and he had a whining look on his face.

"But, Mom! I've got to find James!"

"You'll see him soon enough," was the blunt answer, as she began to rub his cheeks, trying to get the dirt off.

"MOOOOMM!" Sirius whimpered, "This is really embarrassing!" He face was trying a deep shade of crimson and at this Lily laughed out loud. I bet he or his mother knows where the platform is, she thought.

Lily walked over to the woman, presumably his mother, from Sirius helpful hints, and Sirius with every intention to ask how to get to the platform. Unfortunately, the conversation didn't work out that way for Lily.

"Hi, Lily," Sirius said to her as she walked up behind his mother. She was still rubbing his left cheek.

"Hello Sirius. How was your summer?" Lily asked politely.

"Really fun! James and I set off a dungbomb on my brother, Regulus's head," Sirius replied, looking into the station dreamily.

"Dungbombs would be...?"

Mrs. Black whirled around immediately. She seemed completely alarmed at the sight of this young little red-head behind her. Lily couldn't see what was so wrong with herself. She certainly didn't smell, though Sirius kind of did.

"Sirius? Who's your little friend?" she said, turning to him, and ignoring Lily completely.

"Who? Lily?" he quipped stupidly, "I met her at Diagon Alley. She's Lily Evans."

"Lily," his mother pronounced, as if it was some kind of disgusting vile.

"She's really nice..." Sirius said hopefully.

Lily was so confused. Why was Sirius talking as though he was begging his mother to let him talk to her?

"Sirius," she started firmly, staring her son down, "Do you remember our conversation about certain people?"

"What, muggleborns?"

"Shhh...yes, Sirius. What did I tell you?"

"Not to be friendly with them."

"Yes," she looked at him threateningly.

"Sirius and I aren't really good friends, ma'am," Lily said, trying to save Sirius from a verbal attack, "I just wanted to know how to get on to the platform."

Mrs. Black had a terrible glint in her dark eyes.

"I don't care if you want to know how to get on to the platform, missy. You can go ask someone else, or better yet, miss the train. And don't you dare talk to my son again."

Then, she stomped off, taking Sirius with her, who looked very distraught.

Now she could honestly say she had never felt worse. Lily felt like someone had ripped her heart out, and ran it over with an old Thunderbird. Truth be told, it wasn't a nice feeling at all, as far as Lily was concerned.

How could that woman be so cold and heartless? Surely Lily hadn't said or done anything to provoke her. Was she just against all muggle-borns?

Lily crumpled next to a brick wall on her right, and tears finally came on. She fought them back like wildfire, but it was no use, she missed her parents too much, and the loss of someone who was willing to be her only friend was too painful.

A voice emerged over the sound of Lily's crying.

"Hey...are you okay?"

A young girl, about the same age as Lily stood behind her, looking reasonably concerned with Lily's current state. She pushed her strawberry blond hair out of her face as put a hand on Lily's shoulder.

Lily quickly dried her tears with her sleeve as she turned to the girl.

"Yeah... and if I'm not, I will be," Lily said, giving her a small smile of thanks.

The girl laughed, and helped her up, a bit of compassion still lingering in her bright blue eyes. "Good. Mrs. Black can be a bit awful sometimes."

Apparently the girl had seen the whole scene with Mrs. Black from across the station. Like most people who had watched the sight, she felt utterly sympathetic for the young girl of whom was just minding her own business for the most part, and got attacked for it, just because she was a muggle-born.

"You know her?" Lily asked, incredulously, brushing the dirt from the station floor off her clothes, "How?"

"Well, I don't know her. I've just heard of her. From James Potter. He's my mom's friend's son or…nephew...something like that." she replied.

Lily didn't bother asking who James Potter was. He was obviously a boy from her father's beloved Potter line.

"Oh! And I should probably tell you my name, right?" she added as an afterthought, "It's Lexandra Jansey. Or just Lexy. Whichever you like better."

"Lexy," Lily repeated, "I like it. I'm Lily Evans."

"Well, Lily, hi."

"Hello."

The two girls giggled at their cheesy greetings.

"So where are your parents?" Lily asked, Lexy wanting to ask Lily the same.

"Oh, they had to go to work at the Ministry, so they dropped me off. They're aurors." Lexy replied proudly.

"This is going to sound stupid, but what are aurors?"

The girls quickly got their things together and onto their trolleys, as the train was to leave soon. The whole time, Lexy explained aurors to Lily. The conversation was nowhere near dull for Lily as she was happy to learn more about the magical world. She was also happy for Lexy's company, seeing as she had someone to talk to. It was refreshing to talk to someone so kind, and intelligent with all things magic.

"So aurors fight evil witches and wizards?" Lily asked recapping what she had just been told, as they reached the spot between Platforms' 9 and 10, and Lexy had stopped.

"Yeah. They fight them, win, and they put them in Azkaban, a wizarding prison," she answered simply.

"So, now how do we get to the train?" Lily asked, feeling like she was asking too many questions.

"You run through the wall," a boy's voice chimed in behind her.

"Sirius?" Lily said, disbelieving, and turning around immediately. It was indeed Sirius, Lily's eyes didn't deceive her. She was happy to see him, of course, but she couldn't help but worry that his mother was watching them associate together. She was convinced that Mrs. Black would come over in a minute, and perform some kind of spell on her that would turn her into a frog.

Sirius caught Lily looking over his shoulder cautiously, and said calmly, "Don't worry. My mom left a few minutes ago, she went to her friend's baby shower, I think. I don't know. But she left."

"Okay..." Lily smiled slowly, "In that case, what do you mean, 'run through the wall?' Are you trying to kill me off?"

Sirius laughed, with Lexy, and shook his head, "No. Watch. I'll show you!"

He eagerly steered his trolley over to a barrier, and stopped. Then he took all of the energy that possessed him and pushed the trolley foward. He broke into a run, and with each leap he came closer and closer to the bricks until...

"Sirius, wrong one!" Lexy screamed, and clamped her hand over her mouth in horror. Lily covered her eyes. She couldn't bear to see him--

Crash! He fell to the ground with a sickening thud. His trolley flung to his right side just nearly missing him. He lay there for a moment, until the girls completely grasped exactly what had happen, and ran over to him, pushing their own trolleys through the mass chaos of people. Sirius sat up and groaned as them kneeled beside him. Though behind them, in the background, Sirius could hear the cool, crisp laughter of a boy he'd known since they'd been in diapers.


	6. Chapter 6 How to Get off on the Wrong Fo...

_**Hypocrites Always Fall in Love**_

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of this (except most of the plot, and the characters you don't recognize). It all belongs to the _amazing _J.K. Rowling.

**Chapter Six-** How to Get off on the Wrong Foot

Now, James Potter thought this was a _riot_. He thought this was the funniest thing he had seen since 'the broomstick in the dishwasher' incident. For which he had taken the liberty to taunt Sirius about every single waking moment he had to change the subject to do so. That was just the way James was. He wouldn't just let dead dogs lie. James had to resurrect them with a fistful of laughter, even when it wasn't amusing anymore.

"Smart one, Sirius!" James' voice rang out, "Did you ever think that that could be the wrong barrier?" He pointed at Sirius, and continued laughing, not even noticing Lily and Lexy's definite glares in his direction.

Who does this kid think he is, Lily thought. Taunting Sirius like that, honestly. She looked at Sirius, rubbing his awfully sore head, wondering why he wasn't saying anything back. Go on, she thought, defend yourself! James just kept laughing loudly as Sirius rubbed his head some more, barely even hearing James harp on. Lily couldn't take it. She had to say something to this horrible boy.

Lily advanced on James, storming towards him like a fireball.

"Lily--," Lexy called to her, seeing the fire in her eyes, and remembering an old myth. 'When someone is angry at you, pray to the Lord that it's not a fiery red-head.' Lexy got the feeling that she was just about to find out that that myth was the whole truth, and nothing but.

But at that moment, Lily was not exactly set on being civil towards James. She was out to give him a piece of her mind, and Lily was not about to turn back. The moment she reached him, it seemed as though the whole station had gone quiet. It was as if the families sense the tension that was about to erupt between the two children.

"He wasn't doing that for _show_, you know. He really is hurt!" Lily said, deathly quiet to James from behind, blowing off some of her steam.

She had startled him. James hadn't even registered that fact that Lily was next to him. Talking to him. His mouth was gapping open as he turned around to see—her. It was that girl who Sirius had been talking to at Diagon Alley. She looked a bit different, though. For starters, she looked ready to murder someone, but other than that, same curly red hair, dark green eyes, and fairly nice appearance. And she was standing across from him. Seeming angry about something that _wasn't even her business._

Who did this angry girl with her fists clenched think she was?

"And you are…." James said feeling utterly confused, and aggravated at the same time.

"I'm Lily Evans. You?" Lily said coolly enough.

"James Potter."

Lexy looked around, and saw that most people had gone back to their own discussions, for the most part. She felt pretty relieved, too. It didn't seem like Lily was provoking him.

"Uh, a little help here?" Sirius asked Lexy from the ground, holding out his hand for her to grab.

"Oh… yeah, sure Sirius," she said, taking his hand and pulling him up swiftly, and leading him to the other two. For some odd reason, she felt like she had to monitor the conversation between Lily and James, so they didn't aggravate one another.

"You sure? Because you are acting like a prat."

First warning call. Lexy and Sirius made sure to listen intently. They didn't exactly want the clean-up crew to be mopping up blood tonight. And of course, they did not want anyone hurt.

"So? Who cares?"

"I care," Lily raised her voice up a notch, "What gives you the right to laugh at him?"

"The little fact that I'm his best friend," he replied, taking his own voice higher, "Since when do _you_ get to decide what I do? You're not my mother."

"No, she's not James," said Sirius, laughing, "But your mother is over by the barrier calling you."

James turned and looked in the direction Lexy and Sirius were pointing at. _Oh, no. If Mom heard me yelling at this girl, she'll yell at me until the sun burns out,_ he thought. His face expressed his worry, as Sirius yelled back to him.

"Made you look!"

Lexy, Sirius and Lily doubled over, Lily having joined the pair when James stopped shouting at her. He hadn't gotten exactly what he deserved in Lily's opinion, but he did look awfully stupid. And that most _definitely_ counted for something.

James didn't think it was so funny. He wanted to say something ruthless and mean to Sirius, but he settled with just scowling spitefully.

Then, out of nowhere, Lexy got the sudden urge to look at the old clock on the station's wall. Her eyes widened as she checked to make sure she had the time right.

"Hey, look!" she exclaimed as she pointed at the clock's moving hand, "We had better get going if we want to make the train!"

"Wow, you're right. We have to find the real barrier before the train leaves without us!" Lily said. Time had flown by so fast; she hadn't even realized it was five to eleven.

"Here's the actual one," Lexy told her with a smile walking towards it, leading Lily.

Lily smiled. "I certainly hope it's the right one this time."

Lexy laughed at her statement, and looked in the direction of Sirius and James, and nodded. "Are they coming?"

"I bloody well hope so," Lily replied. "Hey, Sirius? Coming?"

"Yeah," Sirius turned around and called back. He pointed a thumb at Lily and Lexy, momentarily looking back at his best friend, "Do you want to come with us, James?"

"I'll be there in a second, I have to say good-bye to my parents," he said, spotting them a short distance away.

"Okay," Sirius agreed, starting to walk of in Lily's direction, "Meet you on the train."

"Yeah," James replied, looking a bit disappointed. His own friend was abandoning him for some girls. Some girls he hadn't even met _two minutes ago_! They were _supposed_ to be best friends! Okay, two can play this brand of gobblestones, he thought.

Now all James had to do was find a new friend, too…


	7. Chapter 7 Boy in a Desolate Compartment

_**Hypocrites Always Fall in Love**_

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of this (except most of the plot, and the characters you don't recognize). It all belongs to the _amazing _J.K. Rowling.

**Chapter 7** – The Boy in the Desolate Compartment

A little boy of the age of eleven sat in the last compartment of the Hogwarts Express. He sat deep in thought of the seven years that lay ahead of him. Working up the courage to even come to the platform had been hard enough. But working up the courage to stay at Hogwarts for the next 7 years was a different story in its entirety. He would have to make friends, and that wasn't one of his strong points.

His brown eyes knit into a frown when he thought about his secret. No one was aloud to know, Dumbledore had told him. No matter how wonderful his "friends" appeared to be. The secret would scare the other children's parents unnecessarily, and as long as they took the essential precautions to keep the information from getting out, he could come to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

"You're very lucky," his parents had told him, "If it weren't for Dumbledore, you couldn't go to Hogwarts."

Only he didn't feel so lucky. He felt nauseous, and the pit in his stomach was knotting itself more each second. The boy's chocolate brown eyes flicked in the direction of the window and he stared out it, with a pained expression on his soft features. There had to be at least a hundred kids on that platform, saying good-bye to their families, waiting to board the train, laughing with other children… He just felt so isolated from them. The desolate compartment appeared gray and dreary through his eyes.

But maybe it would be different here. Maybe people will just accept me for who I am, he thought, brushing a bit of his brown hair out of his face. Thinking positive wouldn't hurt him, right?

It would just let him down.

"Hey, is anyone sitting here?" a voice inquired to despondent boy.

He looked up from the window quickly, and noticed a boy standing in the door of the compartment with unruly black hair. His hazel eyes were fixated on other's brown ones.

"Uh...no. No one's sitting here," he answered back.

"So then I can...?" He gestured at the seat next to him, making sure it was alright to sit down.

"Oh, yeah. Sure, go ahead," the brown eyed boy said, and smiled half-heartedly.

"Thanks. All the other ones were full. Well, pretty much," the raven haired boy said, taking a seat as quietly as he could, feeling that if he didn't, he would shatter the stillness in the air.

Then they both looked at each other, smiling awkwardly. As they sat in uncomfortable silence, both thought about how glad they were just to have another person in the compartment.

Seconds went by, turning into minutes, and the black-haired boy could no longer stand the quiet. He was not patient by nature, just like he was very rarely this subdued. He just had to talk to the other boy.

"Well, hi," he started out.

"Hello," was the small reply from across the compartment.

"I'm James Potter," the boy said encouragingly. "Who are you?"

"I'm Remus," he stuttered, "Remus Lupin."

Niether was sure what to say after that.

Remus desperately wanted to think of something to say. Anything to keep him interested in him, or maybe even willing to be his friend. Remus smiled at the thought of having a friend; someone to talk to. He'd not had one in so long, he'd forgotten what it felt like to have someone be around all the time, not just meet you and then run off because they thought you were different. Only problem was his mind was blank for any idea of what to say.

"So you're a first year?" James asked, making the clear assumption, just from looking at him. Remus, to him, looked unnaturally nervous, and this made James believe that he probably thought the sorting was something scary. Like a troll-fight or something of that sort.

Actually, now that James thought about it, troll-fighting would be a fun way to start the year off. Him and Sirius, giving the troll the old one-two, in the head.

James dismissed the thought with evasive hope that he could forget Sirius as quickly as he had forgotten James.

"Yeah," Remus replied, warming up a bit, attempting to look a little less uneasy, "How about you?"

"I'm in first year too. Hoping for Gryffindor," James said smiling with pride.

"Gryffindor sounds nice, but I think I'd rather be in Ravenclaw," Remus said in casual response, as James' mouth dropped open.

"Ravenclaw?"

By the way he said this, Remus felt as though he'd chosen the wrong thing to say.

"Uh..yes...it sounds—"

"What about exploring Hogwarts, and having fun with your friends?" James interrupted him, incredulously, shifting in his seat so that he was closer to Remus.

Remus looked out the window for comfort, because looking at James was making him feel a bit awkward. The greenery passed by his eyes like forest blurs, and the English countryside looked pleasantly content with the train passing through its wisps of tall golden grass. It made him feel oddly at peace, and mellow. Until he looked back at James.

Then he spoke up simply.

"I'm not so sure I'll have any friends."

James stared at Remus, his hazel eyes filled with deep sympathy. He smiled quietly at him, absorbed in his own thoughts.

"I'll be your friend."

Remus just looked at him, completely astonished. Did he really mean what he said? Was he finally going to have a true friend? Would he truly stand by him, or would James leave the minute he met someone who was more fun to be around?

"Seriously, James?" he dared to ask.

"Seriously, Remus."

And for the first time since his accident, Remus cracked a rare, true smile.


	8. Chapter 8 Bowing Your Way to the Top

_**Hypocrites Always Fall in Love**_

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of this (except most of the plot, and the characters you don't recognize). It all belongs to the _amazing _J.K. Rowling.

**Chapter Eight-** Bowing Your Way to the Top

"And you actually did that?" Lexy asked disbelieving every word Sirius said.

"Yup," he said proudly as he pushed Lexy's trunk to her, and grabbed at his own in the back corner, "That was the best cart ride in Gringotts that I've ever been on."

Lily laughed in objection as she joined them, carrying her own baggage off the train and into a wizarding town called Hogsmeade.

"Sirius, that's a load of dung, and you know it," she turned to Lexy, "He really cowered in the back seat, whimpering, while my dad and I laughed at him."

"Why do you have to crush my dreams, Lily? Why can't you just let me live in _peace_ for once?" Sirius exclaimed with mock hysteria, actually taking the blow to his ego good naturedly on the inside.

"Because, Sirius," Lily grinned widely at her companions, "It's fun to watch your dreams shatter into a thousand little pieces. It just makes my day complete."

"Gee. I feel loved," he brooded.

And as they began walking, Lexy watched this whole show and had to fight back a fit of laughter. These two must be some kind of odd couple.

Lily dropped the subject with Sirius after a while, so Sirius and Lexy resulted in comparing their funniest jokes. It was quite a heated battle, as they trailed off the platform and onto the fresh earth.

"So these two goblins walk into a bar…" Sirius started, looking at Lexy, his eyes blazing with laughter.

"Those goblins better walk far away from that bar, since I've already heard that one," she replied rolling her eyes at him.

"Well, you've never heard _me_ tell it, so it's never been told to you the _right_ way," Sirius shot back, openly laughing now.

"So then what would be the right way to tell—"

Lily began to just drown out the voices and looked about at the scenery as they walked. It was all so pleasant, the way the wind swayed the trees back and forth, in rhythm with the chatter amongst all the children. She had never seen grass so green, and the town she was passing by looked more vibrant than the streets of Canterbury.

Suddenly, she spotted a man…a _giant_ man… up the path, who clashed awfully with his surroundings.

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here! Come'on now!" a scruffy voice that clearly belonged to the tall man, called, waving the young ones over.

Lily turned to Sirius and Lexy in the middle of their argument. She spoke urgently, trying to gain their attention.

"That's us!"

Lily led the group to down the pathway to the giant man. They stopped at his feet, waiting for him to reply along with another boy who looked thoroughly frightened of the man.

As soon as the rest of the first years had gathered round, the giant spoke.

"Follow me!" were the words that boomed out of his mouth. Although he looked scary and big, Lily was quite sure that he was probably a nice man. She followed him willingly, while others hesitated, taken back by his abnormal size.

Sirius walked beside Lily, with Lexy just behind them, talking animatedly about the mysterious Hogwarts.

"Where's the castle?"

"Do you think they keep it hidden?"

"Maybe," Lexy replied to both of them, "Or maybe they just make sure it's invisible to people, so muggles can't find it."

The group rounded upon a dark, shadowy lake. There was no way you could see the bottom, as the depths of the water had a murky glow about it. It was vast in size, and practically implied that it went on forever.

The first years huddled around the giant and listened intently for his directions. Though, out of the corner of her eye, Lily could see James distracting another young boy who was trying to hear the man, also.

_Prat_, she thought, _Can't wait to see if he drowns in the lake._

Meanwhile, the giant, who introduced himself as Hagrid, began guiding the children into the boats, four at a time. Lily watched as the first years broke themselves up into groups. She stuck close to Sirius and Lexy, not wanting to end up in a boat with people she didn't know.

Soon, Lily found herself, Sirius, and Lexy being led to a boat by Hagrid. A boy was already seated in it, his greasy, black hair matted to his head, just waiting for companions to join him. His nose was slightly hooked, which gave him a snotty appearance that Lily wasn't so sure so liked.

She decided that common courtesy was a must.

"Hello," she said, smiling to the boy as she seated herself next to him, "I'm Lily Evans."

"Hello," was his reply.

It was silent for a moment as Sirius, and Lexy tried to get comfortable in the boat.

"I suppose I should tell you my name," the boy said to Lily with a faint smile appearing on his lips, "Severus Snape."

"_Severus_…" Sirius said, settling into the boat just right, "Nice name."

Then he turned around and spotted James in another boat. He stood up and waved frantically at his friend.

"Oy! James!" he yelled as he waved his arms, and James blatantly ignored him, "Where you been?"

"Yeh might wan' ta sit yerself down," Hagrid said to him, and then gave the boat a push out to the lake, and off the wooden dock.

"_Woah_…" Sirius murmured as he fell back into his seat.

At this Lexy began giggling from her own place in the boat next to him.

"He's an odd one, isn't he?" Severus asked Lily, smirking a bit.

"Ah…well, yeah," she replied, stifling a laugh, "Just a bit."

The boats had no sooner reached the middle of the lake, and turned 'round the bend, when a huge silence came over the children.

The first years stared in awe at the sight ahead of them. Many 'ooh's and 'ahhh's escaped the mouths of the astonished children as they lifted their heads up, and stopped their irrelevant conversations.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was lying peacefully above the lake's shore, just a few hundred feet away.

"So this is Hogwarts?" Remus whispered to James, ever so quietly.

"I suppose," he replied back, staring vaguely at the huge mass of stone.

Remus turned away, and spoke quietly to himself.

"I can hardly wait to get in..."

-----------------------

The young kids were quickly herded out of there boats and into the Great Hall of Hogwarts by a stricken-looking teacher. She spoke briefly to the fearful first years of a dreaded thing called "The Sorting." Then she left them for a moment to talk amongst themselves.

"How are we going to be sorted?" a boy by the name of Gregory Hooper asked James.

"I dunno," he shrugged back to him, wondering himself.

"I hear we have to battle a _dragon!_" a blond one chimed in, barging between Remus and James, as he had been listening in intently on their conversation.

Is he following us, James thought to himself. If not, it sure seems like it.

"If that's the case, I bet it's a Vipertooth. Those things are vicious!"

The blond boy's face seemed to drain all its color. He was now deathly white, and this made James laugh inwardly a bit. He did felt sort of bad for doing so, and particularly sorry for the boy, of course.

The professor came back, looking very grave, which didn't help any of the children to feel better.

"Follow me into the Great Hall, where the Sorting shall take place momentarily."

The kids were lined up, and then brought into the hall. Most of the children looked like they were very ready to throw up from the amount of green, pale faces in a sea of first years. Others, like Lily, looked fairly up to it and only the slightest bit scared.

The woman placed a old looking hat on a stool in the center of the stage, just ahead of the soon-to-be first years. Lily stared at the shabby wizard's hat with apprehension. This hat wouldn't _eat_ her or anything, would it?

Quite suddenly, the hat astonished all the first years by opening its brim widely in loud song.

_"Welcome to Old Hogwarts School,_

_Where I'll decide you fate._

_So listen up, and do take heed,_

_For I'm no second-rate._

_So lend your ears and listen close,_

_As I describe the houses here._

_I haven't been wrong before, have I?_

_So you needn't any fear. _

_Gryffindor may be_

_The house of choice,_

_For those who are daring,_

_And bold in voice._

_Ravenclaw seems_

_To attract young ones,_

_Who never rest_

_Until their best is done._

_Hufflepuff appears_

_To those who are kind,_

_Loyal, and always_

_Speak their mind._

_Sytherin agrees_

_With ones who are shifty._

_Forever on their toes _

_And fairly tricky._

_So, go on, pick a house,_

_In your mind._

_Though I will choose_

_The house you shall find._

_For when I am finished,_

_You will all have a place._

_I can see all,_

_So please, don't hide your face."_

And with that, the Great Hall burst with thunderous applause and Lily noted that a man with a long silvery beard actually gave the hat a standing ovation. Lily figured he was one of the teachers here at Hogwarts, but inwardly wondered who he was.

The woman, known to most as Professor McGonagall came out of the shadows, unrolled a piece of old-looking parchment, and read.

"Now, when I call your name, I would like for you to go up to the stool and put the Sorting hat on your head."

"Ackley, Tom." She called.

The boy approached the hat with fear. As he placed it on the top of his head, he cringed.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" The hat cried out.

The table Lily identified as Hufflepuff screamed in applause, as the boy joined them to sit down, looking thoroughly relieved.

"Alhernon, Sarah!"

Lily watched as the hat sorted her, also. It barely touched her head when it yelled out, "RAVENCLAW!"

The Ravenclaw table let out applause for her just like the Hufflepuffs had for Tom Ackley, too.

"Avery, Matthew."

"SYTHERIN!"

Lily stared into space, glancing up at the ceiling which displayed the sky outside. She was amazed, since she had never seen anything like it. Lily was mesmerized by its beauty and grace…

She half-listened as the hat sorted Baker, Chistoper into Hufflepuff; Beyst, Hera into Ravenclaw, and…

"Black, Sirius!"

Lily's attention was grabbed, as she watched her friend saunter towards the hat, Lexy and herself both giggling at his silly demeanor. She looked down the line, and noticed James laughing too. She quickly stopped laughing, not wanting to find anything amusing that James found funny.

The hat sat on his head for quite a while when it finally called out, "GRYFFINDOR!"

The table of Gryffindors whistled loudly, and had even more praise for their first new first year than all the other houses.

Lily glimpsed at the Sytherin table and observed them glaring at the Gryffindors. This, for some reason, made her smile.

After Sirius' sorting, she lost all interest in the Sorting, and listened loosely as the teacher called out names, and the hat told the houses.

"Capper, Molly..." became a Ravenclaw, "Maia Culina…" was deemed Gryffindor…. And the names went on from there.

Lily let her mind wander, but when she heard her name ("Evans, Lily!"), she stood up straighter, a walked timidly to the stool on which the hat stood.

When she put it on her head, she let out a gasp as it spoke to her.

"Hmmm… Where shall I put you? You'll be very intelligent, with the right schooling, and you have bravery, oh yes…a bit sarcastic, I see…so I probably shouldn't put you in Hufflepuff…you might step on someone's toes there…Oh, but where? Sytherin…hmmm…it's not a bad bet…Though I don't know that you'll do to wonderfully there…and yet…well…oh, yes…I have to keep in mind something else, too…alright then…GRYFFINDOR!"

Lily felt very confused as she sat down next to Sirius; he was saying something to her, applause practically breaking her eardrums. _What had the hat meant?_

She let it drop, and watched as others were sorted, trying to pay close attention.

After a while, she saw her friend just about to be sorted.

"Jansey, Lexandra!"

The hat sat on the tip of her head for a moment, and then shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!"

Lily and Sirius exploded with a round of applause along with the others at the Gryffindor table.

Sirius smiled at her, "Way to go, Lexy."

"Yeah, Lexy, way to go!" Lily echoed, grinning.

"Thanks!" she replied, her face flushed with happiness.

The three sat in silence, as people were still being put in houses.

Lupin, Remus, was next.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Their table yelled out again, and Remus Lupin sat down diagonally across from Sirius.

Then a slew of Ravenclaws, Sytherins, and Hufflepuffs were sorted, along with two new Gryffindors. Peter Pettigrew, and Renee Michaels.

After Pettigrew was someone Lily actually knew.

"Potter, James!"

Not Gryffindor, please, hat, not Gryffindor, Lily thought to herself.

Gryffindor, please give him Gryffindor, Remus and Sirius both thought to themselves.

_Gryffindor, hat?_ James asked it.

"Oh…alright then, wouldn't have put you anywhere else anyway," the hat told him, exasperated.

"GRYFFINDOR!" it called out.

Then, before exiting the stage, James let out a very fancy bow in the direction of the hat and Pr. McGonagall, and fled the stage.

Lily, glared at the hat, and watched as James high-fived Remus, and went to sit next to him, a few down from Lily and Sirius.

"Hey James!" Sirius called to him, "Gryffindor. Awesome, mate!"

James stopped for a second, not sure what to say. He looked at Sirius again, and then Lily stared at them in horror as James' frown turned into a grin, and he sat on the other side of Remus, just across from his best friend.

Was that it? Was that the end of their fight?

Lily refused to look at James, or congratulate him, for that matter, and focused all her concentration on the rest of the Sorting.

Only a couple people were left. Lily caught a few of the names as she looked.

"Rottingham, Lidia!"

An unpleasant-looking young girl came forward and placed the hat on her head. It barely touched when it yelled out, "SYTHERIN!"

The girl grinned almost evilly.

The next to be sorted, Lily recognized as Severus Snape, the boy she'd sat next to on the boat.

He placed the hat on his head, where it sat for a little bit before shouting out, "SYTHERIN!"

Then, the person after him, Thanitz, Auva, was also sorted into Sytherin.

The last person was, "Verde, Catalina!"

"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat called out cheerfully, and she stepped down from the stage and took a seat next to Lexy.

Then the professor rolled up her parchment, and took the hat away.

When she returned, and sat down at the teachers' table, the man with the long silvery beard stood up. He called out over the talking children, in a voice that did not match the grandfather look he had.

"Welcome," he said majestically, gesturing to the Great Hall, "To Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!"

The chatter died down as quickly as it had started.

"I hope you will all have a wonderful year here. Now, for a few important announcements," he clapped his hands together, smiling at them all. "First of all, our caretaker, Apollyon Pringle, would like to inform to you that the Dark Forest, in fact, is still highly dangerous, and off grounds. Therefore, if you are seen in it, detention is a consequence. Also, we have a new addition to the grounds; a tree has been planted near the lake. I would advise you to stay far away from it, as it enjoys lashing out at innocent victims. Other than that, let the feast begin!"


	9. Chapter 9 The Mysterious Staircase

_**Hypocrites Always Fall in Love**_

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of this (except most of the plot, and the characters you don't recognize). It all belongs to the _amazing _J.K. Rowling.

**Chapter Nine** – The Mysterious Staircase

The feast was fabulous, in Lily's opinion. She had never seen so much food, or tasted such delicious treats. Her only peeve was that James Potter unknowingly tried to make conversation with her while Sirius chatted with Remus Lupin. Unfortunately, she couldn't escape with Lexy's help either. She was listening to something the girl across from her, Maia Culina, was telling her about life in Italy.

"It is wonderful, and everyone is very good at art and making pizza…"

Luckily, Lily was able to engage Catalina Verde in a discussion, completely disregarding Potter, and his way about him.

"He's so annoying," Lily whispered to Catalina, pointing in the direction of James, who was currently trying to grab her attention.

"Oh, yeah," she nodded, grinning at her and spooning some mashed potatoes onto her plate, "A cute boy trying to talk to you is the most horrible thing I ever did hear."

"Hey!" Lily giggled, "Don't mock me!"

"I wasn't," Catalina replied to her companion, smiling again, "My name is Catalina Verde, just so you don't feel like you're talking to some idle stranger."

"Oh…I didn't," Lily grinned back, taking a swig from her pumpkin juice, "I'm Lily Evans."

"How nice to meet you," Catalina joked to her, mocking all formality, but meaning the gesture.

"Yeah, really," she responded, happy to find someone who was so much like her. She was sarcastic, but in a good way, and this made Lily smile.

The feast carried on from there, much with the same mood and not many changes to it. The only truly exciting thing was when one of the newly sorted Sytherins turned a fellow Gryffindor first year's pumpkin juice into dragon blood. This caused quite a commotion, as the student, Peter Pettigrew, unfortunately didn't notice this in time and had to be sent to the hospital wing.

After the feast, the Gryffindors were lead up to their tower by Molly Cartright, a seventh year prefect. The password ("Oogleberry!") was given to the Fat Lady, of whom they were told to beware of her moodiness if you happen to wake her during her "beauty rest."

Upon entering the Common Room, Lily was in awe at all the red and gold that surrounded her. Comfy, scarlet armchairs were placed close to the blazing fire going in the fire place, and around the rest of the room. The walls were full of ornate patterns, deep shades of gold and red. End tables had been intelligently positioned next to the armchairs and deep red couches; on theses tables were gold lamps with gorgeous white lamp shades over top them. Spiral staircases on either sides of the room led you to boys' dormitories or girls, depending to which you went up.

Lexy looked over at Lily with wide eyes and stated, "This place is huge!"

Lily just looked at her and grinned.

"I know!"

Regrettably, for all the Gryffindor students present in the Common Room, a little mischievous ghost poked his head out from behind a burgundy tapestry on the wall. His eyes were lit up with a certain sparkle to them as he gazed longingly upon the innocence in the room. Lily noticed that he wasn't, as a matter of fact, pearly white, like some of the other ghosts she had seen earlier at the feast. No…he was solid-looking, almost like a normal human-being. Only he could float in the air.

He chose that exact moment to swoop down on his naive, first year victims. He let out an evil grin before he attacked. Eggs went flying, as some hit the children, while others clearly missed. One of the few odd things about the eggs being flung at the kids was that some were hard-boiled while others were not, so Lily wasn't quite sure which ones to dodge. Although, she had to laugh when Lexy got a hard-boiled one pitched into her mouth.

"Hey, that's not funny." Lexy scoffed at her as she took the thing out and tossed it on the ground.

Lily ducked again as an egg was aimed at her head. While kneeling on the floor, she grabbed Lexy's egg and launched it at the flying man's head.

"Peeves!" yelled the prefect, Molly, while he was thrown backward from an egg that had gotten a little too close to his head (but going through it, of course), "Come down and leave them alone."

The ghost appeared not to hear, and went on aiming eggs.

"Peeves!" a woman called above the prefect's voice.

Peeve dropped the last of his eggs and disappeared as Professor McGonagall advanced on him. He's like the Chester_ cat from "Alice_ in Wonderland," Lily thought to herself.

As Molly addressed the Professor about what had happened with Peeves, the students looked around at each other. Almost everyone had been covered with egg. James and Sirius the most, Lily noticed as she watched them whisper to one another with that other boy, Remus Lupin.

"That ghost was _sooo_ cool," James said to Sirius, who just grinned at him.

Lily rolled her eyes at them. Silly boys.

The prefect came back a few minutes later and McGonagall left. The older students had also dispersed to clean up and rid themselves of the horrible egg that covered their uniform.

"I suppose I should be pleased, since that's one less thing I have to show you. The ghost is, obviously, Peeves, the resident poltergeist here at Hogwarts," she pushed up the rims of her glasses on her face, "He tends to cause more havoc here than any of you can dream of creating. You might want to, you know, avoid him at all costs type of thing."

She let her words sink into the minds of the young ones for a moment.

"Now, I suggest you go to bed. You have long day ahead of you."

The first years headed up their separate staircases to their dormitories. Lily was surprised to find all her things in her room, next to one of the beds.

Lily moved quietly towards the poster bed that she claimed as hers while her roommates drank in their surroundings.

Lexy picked the bed to the left of Lily's and threw herself onto it, staring at the ceiling.

Then Catalina took the other bed next to Lily's and jumped into it happily, causing the girls to laugh at her antics. Maia just grinned, and took a pillow from the top of her trunk and placed it softly on her own bed.

Renee laughed as she began unpacking, "Strange place, it is here. Egged on the first day and everything."

"Not as strange as that one, I'm afraid," Maia giggled, gesturing to Catalina, who had flopped onto her bed, now posed like Lexy.

Catalina lifted her head in protest.

"I resent that."

"I don't," Lexy smiled, turning her head to Catalina, "You have more energy than anxious hippogriff."

The girls just giggled some more and introduced themselves to one another.

------------------------

Meanwhile, in the boys' dormitory, there was much less chatter. Rather, Remus Lupin had gone to see the headmaster to "discuss an important matter," so Sirius and James were devising a list of fun things to do and pranks to pull in the castle during this year. Peeves the poltergeist had inspired them and they weren't about to waste that energy on anything else, like going to sleep.

Their other roommate (since Peter Pettigrew was still in the hospital wing) had gone to bed and fallen asleep before he had time to inform the two boys present what his name was.

"Just conked out like that," Sirius whispered, snapping his fingers. "It amazes me."

"I think everything amazes you, Sirius," James said back, "Now, how 'bout this list?"

He pointed to the piece of parchment in his hand, indicating that he thought they needed to get back to work.

"Can we finish this later, James? I'm beginning to smell funny," Sirius said, frowning at the boy sitting across from him, "And so are you."

James just glanced down at his and Sirius clothes. The egg was starting to smell rotten and feel pretty gross. He figured they probably should shower up so they wouldn't stick to their beds or something.

"Alright," he agreed, shoving the parchment and his quill into his bedside table drawer and hopping off his bed, "I get the shower first!"

"No fair," Sirius glowered as James raced into the bathroom and started the water.

----------------------

Lily was shaken awake the next morning by Catalina, whom had deemed herself the alarm-clock. She seemed to like getting up early, as she was the first one out of bed the next morning.

"Lily..." Catalina whispered, shaking he gently and pushing her own wavy, light brown hair out of her eyes, "Time to get up, sleepyhead."

"Hurmphish." Lily replied sleepily, turning over onto her side, effectively blocking Catalina from reaching her. Unfortunately this put her face towards the rising sun that shone in the open window.

Lily blinked slightly, and slowly opened her eyes. The morning sunrise lit the cool sky brightly, nearly blinding her. She rubbed her eyes and staggered out of bed, squinted at the window, feeling the warm, summer-like air wrap around her body like a blanket.

She felt oddly refreshed, even though she'd had a bit of trouble falling asleep that last night. Lily yawned quietly, just so not to wake up the other girls sleeping soundly in the room.

_Other girls?_

Lily blinked again, finally remembering where she was. She was at Hogwarts. _Wonderful _Hogwarts. And today was the first day of classes.

Suddenly she had all the energy in the world on her side.

Lily smiled as she glanced out the window once more, trying to get herself used to the amount of light that was now seeping into her squinting eyes. She decided to cast a glance in the direction of Catalina, who was currently waking up Maia. Rather, she was trying to wake her. Maia kept swatting her away with her hand.

"Go away." Maia moaned, rolling over.

"S'long as you get up," Catalina said, shaking her again, smiling at Lily, who was currently stifling a laugh.

"I'm up. I'm _up_..." Maia said, dragging herself out of bed, glaring at Catalina.

"Well, she isn't a morning person," Catalina whispered to Lily, as Maia stalked off to the bathroom and a loud bang coming from the bathroom door.

"Apparently not." Lily replied, giggling, and returning from the window to her bed. She knelt down on the floor and opened her large trunk at the foot of her bed.

"Hey!" Lexy called to Maia, sitting up in her bed, "What was that for?"

Lily gathered that they obviously have two not-so-morning-people in the dormitory. She dug deeper into her trunk to find her Hogwarts robes, as Lexy found her way to the bathroom to address Maia.

"What was that?" Renee asked from her corner of the room, having been woken from the yelling.

"What we'll have to deal with every morning for the rest of the year," Catalina said, sighing quietly and seating herself on her own bed. She took a brush from her bedside table and began brushing her hair to get the bed-knots out of it.

"Oh joy, huh?" Lily said to Renee, setting off some quiet laughter.

---------------------------

Lily was feeling fairly pleasant that day, since it was time for classes. She had looked over some of her books the night before and was intrigued by the topics. It was the sort of excitement that she just could not shake off.

Breakfast had been tolerable, almost enjoyable, as she sat next to Catalina and Lexy chatting away animatedly. She even spotted Remus Lupin and James Potter sitting across from her and that didn't dampen her mood.

Of course, she never uttered so much as, "Please pass the toast," to either of them.

It was not too much later that her mood was crushed completely.

She had had the unfortunate luck of running into a certain staircase. Now, which staircase she had come to be a victim of, she wasn't sure, since they appeared to be moving at a constant rate. Lily, in any case, became a witness to this firsthand.

No sooner had she made her way up the marble staircase, on her way to Transfiguration, her first class, did they decide to switch on her.

"Bloody staircase…" Lily muttered, holding on tight to the railing, "Where to now?"

As the stairs re-connected, Lily heading up the only way she could now go. Straight.

After a few minutes of wandering quietly down the corridor, trying to find her way through the tangled mess of passages that make Hogwarts, well…Hogwarts, she sighed aimlessly. She would never find her way to her first class. She continued to roam the hallways, looking for someone to ask directions of. For heavens sake, there were thousands of kids, a slew of teachers and more ghosts than she could count. You'd think she would come across someone eventually.

Just as Lily was about to be convinced that she was going to die in this bloody corridor, her day got worse.


	10. Chapter 10 Weaving a Tangled Web

_**Hypocrites Always Fall in Love**_

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of this (except most of the plot, and the characters you don't recognize). It all belongs to the _amazing _J.K. Rowling.

**Chapter Ten** – Weaving a Tangled Web

Just as Lily was about to be convinced that she was going to die in this bloody corridor, her day got worse.

In Lily's world, it just happened to be the icing on the cake.

As she stopped for a moment, she heard footsteps behind her. Running footsteps. They seemed to be getting closer to her, when she hesitated, just turning ever so slightly…

She was thrown forward as someone collided into her, landing her magnificently on the floor…Not even. She gathered herself together, picking up her books and straightening her robes out. Lily stumbled to her feet and watched as James Potter ran by her.

This, of course, wasn't the worst part.

As Lily reached down, to grab her bag, which was lying there so innocently, it burst into flames. Bright red flames engulfed the brand new school bag her parents had bought her especially for Hogwarts.

The bag was turned to ash in a matter of seconds.

Some prank, Lily thought, glaring in the direction of James' retreating figure. I hate him.

What she didn't notice (or hear, rather) as she walked dejectedly through the hall, soon after finding her class, was that a invisible little man was tipping his hat to Lily, crackling at his joke.

Eventually, she stumbled upon the Transfiguration room, where she received a very stern look from Professor McGonagall for being so late.

"I'm very sorry, Professor for coming so late but..." she trailed off, noticing that everyone in the class had their eyes upon her.

As she slipped into the only seat open, next to Remus Lupin, the professor addressed her.

"Please see me after class, Miss Evans," she said simply, looking very grave to Lily. She just gave her a once-over glance, as if to say she expected better of her.

At this, Lily felt like bursting into tears. It had been an absolutely horrible day...and it was not even half over yet. She felt salty tears welling up in her eyes but she refused to let them fall. No one was going to push Lily Evans around. She made it a point to remember to confront James Potter at the end of all this.

"Are you alright?" Remus Lupin asked; his voice was full of concern in having seen the horrible look on her face.

"I'll be quite fine," Lily said, forcing a smile, "But thank you for asking."

"Well...okay then," Remus replied, wondering about her, "Hey...Where's the book bag you had earlier?"

Lily glanced at him, very surprised that he would notice such a thing. He seemed very observant to her though, so she figured it shouldn't be that much of a shock.

Then, she looked back at Professor McGonagall before responding. She was sure that if she was caught talking she'd get a detention or something of the sort. And Lily couldn't afford any more trouble.

"He burned it to bits," she whispered, making a long story short and pointing to James, who sat two rows ahead of her with Sirius.

"James?" Remus questioned, appearing to be thoroughly shocked, "I wouldn't think he'd do such a thing..."

He seemed to be pondering his thoughts some more, as Professor McGonagall went on about the type of class she would be teaching.

"Now, I except no nonsense and it shall not be tolerated in this class. Goofing off and playing games will not help you to pass this course, so I advise you not to take part in it..."

Right in front of her, it seemed, James and Sirius could clearly be seen laughing with one another.

"...Obviously taking no heed to what I just said, Mr. Potter?" The teacher asked, coming up to the foot of James's desk. She looked very angry with him, "First you are late and then you decide to not listen to a word I say? Ten points from Gryffindor."

This left James mouth hanging, as he just sat, amazed by Professor McGonagall.

Soon enough the class ended, with everyone in low spirits. They had found out very quickly that Professor McGonagall knew exactly how to suck all the fun out of magic.

After a brief conversation with McGonagall after class on the excuse of their being late, Lily and James were free to go.

On the way out, she went to talk to James about her bag. The only snag in that plan was that before she could get the words out, he disappeared down the hall, chasing after Sirius.

She sighed in exasperation, as she went to her desk, and picked up her large pile of books, draping them in her arms.

Unexpectedly, she was met at the door by Remus Lupin.

"Hullo," she said dully, moving past him, "Why didn't you go on with James?"

He began to walk with her, smiling.

"Because I didn't feel like it," he stated simply, looking at her so very sincerely. "Besides, I was wondering if you wanted help with those books."

He gestured to his own barely-filled pack. She glanced at him in disbelief, and he took this to mean that she thought he was pulling a joke on her.

"I've got plenty of room," he said, looking thoughtful, and trying to get her to smile.

She pondered it for a moment.

"Thanks," she said, handing over a couple of her books, "If you could just..."

"Uh, yeah..." he replied, grinning and reaching out to put the books and heaps of parchment in the empty spaces of his pack.

"Thank you, again," she grinned.

"No problem."

And with that, they headed to their next class.

---------------------------

The Charms room felt mighty stuffy, even if it was the beginning of September. The Gryffindors were greeted by the Sytherin first-years, all of whom looked fairly annoyed to see the Gryffindors.

"What a nice looking lot," Lily heard Sirius whisper, as she and Remus reached the edge of the group. It appeared that the Charms teacher hadn't shown for class yet, as the door to the classroom was locked shut.

James snickered, as his eyes fell upon a Sytherin boy who had just tripped over his robes when approaching the classroom's door.

"That's not very nice of him," Lily murmured to Remus and Lexy, who appeared on her other side with Catalina, "If he had fallen, he could have gotten hurt."

She smiled at the boy, whom she recognized to be Severus Snape.

Before Severus even had time to smile back, a short, funny man had reached the door of the Charms room. After he unlocked the door, and told the class to sit where ever they wanted, he addressed the students. He said the usual, in comparison to McGonagall's words.

"My name is Professor Flitwick, and I'll be your Charms teacher for the next...well for quite a while," he said as he stood on his podium. Lily secretly thought that he only should there so that he was actually taller than his seated students. She supposed it must be discouraging to have so many first-year students even towering over you in height. But anyway...in her eagerness to learn about Charms, she was forgetting to listen to the professor.

"...Now," he went on, rubbing his chin, "The first thing you shall learn is the most important of all things."

The teacher looked so very serious and oddly surprised to see so many children staring at him intently. He didn't exactly seem to demand attention very often.

"...You shall learn the proper way to cast a spell," Pr. Flitwick smiled knowingly, "I find that a simple 'swish and flick' works best. So for now, you will practice just that. 'Swish and flick'..." he demonstrated on his own wand, waving it gracefully. "'Swish and flick'..."

Lily concentrated completely on trying to do this correctly. Surprisingly enough to her and her partner seated next to her, Lexy, she seemed to master it in very little time at all. So then Lily took that time to help Lexy, while Flitwick continued to prance around the room calling, "Swish and flick, it's all in the wrist!" to anyone who did it wrong.

"Swish and flick," Lexy muttered, "Honestly...there's got to be something more than that...OH!"

As Lexy flicked her wrist down, her wand, unfortunately chose a different path. It was flung right into Sirius's face.

"...And flick the wand across the room, Lex, that's the way to go." Lily laughed, but then called, "Are you alright, Sirius?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Sirius grumbled as James just laughed. Lily felt herself wondering if that stupid boy found everything funny. Sirius just glared at James. "It's not that funny, mate."

Then he sauntered over to Lexy and Lily's table to hand the wand back.

"Now, you ought to be more careful with this thing," he grinned, placing the wand in Lexy's hands as she blushed.

"Sorry, then," she said, and Sirius walked away, rubbing his forehead.

"I get hit an awful lot around here, don't I?" Sirius muttered to himself as he went back to his own table.

"Somehow, I don't think that's going to change anytime soon," James said, grinning as his friend sat down next to him.

"Watch out, or you'll be next," he replied, his hand still on his forehead, "What comes around, goes around, James."

---------------------------

Lunch soon came, and all the students had gathered themselves in the Great Hall. As much as Lily would have loved to talk to James about her burned bag, she couldn't seem to find him anywhere at the Gryffindor Table. This annoyed her greatly.

She watched as Sirius shoveled down food like no tomorrow, barely stopping to take a breath.

"You haven't seen James, have you?" she asked Sirius, trying to appear casual.

"No, not recently…why?" he questioned, taking a rest from eating for a moment. He seemed a bit puzzled as to why Lily, of all people, who appeared to be avoiding James (thank God, because no one wanted a repeat of what almost happened at Platform 9 ¾ ), would want to speak to him.

"Because," she said impatiently, still looking around for him, "He burned my book bag."

"Why would he do a thing like that?" Sirius asked, looking (if possible) if more confused than before.

"Never mind, Sirius," she said, getting up, and deciding to go look for him herself, "I won't bother to explain it. I'll see you all later."

She gestured a good-bye to Remus, Sirius, Catalina and Lexy, and headed out of the Great Hall.

By the end of that day Lily never did get a chance to talk to James, she of course, saw him in the last class of the day; Potions. Unfortunately for her fury, the most she could do was glare incessantly at the back of his head.

A week went by, progressing very much the same, except for a few minor mishaps. Remus disappeared, to Lily's surprise, for a few days at the start of their second week at Hogwarts. Rumor had it that his great-aunt, of who lived with his family, had taken seriously ill. It made Lily upset to think of the sadness the poor, kind boy could be experiencing while she and everyone else were enjoying the light-hearted feel of the Hogwarts halls.

Another thing that seemed to be popping up everywhere was the news of some dark wizard in southern England that was gaining power among his supporters. Lily had managed to overhear snippets of a conversation between two of her teachers while walking the vacant corridors with moving armor, during a lunchtime trip to the library.

As Lily heard the voices approaching, she crouched down behind one of the suits of armor and searched through her bag for the book she needed to return.

"Did you here about the four people that died this morning because of that...that-- man?" McGonagall asked Pr. Kindley, the Herbology teacher. As she held the Daily Prophet in her hand, Lily noticed that she looked like she was in distress.

"Yes...That did happen to reach my ears. Now isn't that tragic?" He replied, glancing at the paper briefly.

As he looked more closely at the headline, Professor McGonagall glanced up, only to spot Lily looking through her bag.

"Best hurry along, Miss Evans. There's only ten minutes left of your break," she said, smiling thinly at Lily from over the newspaper.

"Yes, Professor."

Then Lily headed off to the library to do some serious thinking.


	11. Chapter 11 Reaching the Boiling Point

_**Hypocrites Always Fall in Love**_

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of this (except most of the plot, and the characters you don't recognize). It all belongs to the _amazing _J.K. Rowling.

**This should be the more interesting chapter and if it's not then I definitely need to stop writing all together. I hope you like this better than you liked the last one. **

**Grimm Sister: Here's the plot you've been looking for. I know the last chapter was pretty dry but all that stuff about Voldemort, that's going to be going somewhere in later chapters. For now, you'll just have to be content with a little Lily and James action (not the romantic kind, though… eleven is too young for these kids to "go out" and I don't like it when fanfic authors do that). **

**If you're looking for Lily and James romance, check out my other fanfics here. That fluffy stuff will satisfy you. But as for this…maybe there'll be HINTS of crushes and stuff…but for the most part, I'll save that stuff for 3rd and 4th year. Right now the last thing I want to write is more Lily and James romance. There's only so many times I can re-write it until I just go crazy.**

**Evilryokojesseandfiend: Lily won't find out about Remus' werewolf problem just yet. But don't worry…I have plans for that, too.**

**And people mentioning the Lily and Remus stuff: I'm not pairing them up, don't worry. I'm just trying to set up a friendship between them. Like I've said, no lovey-dovey stuff until way later in this story.**

**Summerkins (Dani): I never said James burned Lily's bag, did I? I only said he passed her in the halls when it happened.**

**Sorry for writing so much stuff up here. I tend to ramble. Thanks for the reviews…I can't wait to here what else you guys have to say.**

**Chapter 11- Reaching the Boiling Point**

When she had reached the library, Lily was at a loss in her thoughts. How could there be a man going around England murdering people? Didn't they have some kind of force, like muggle bobbies, that could keep him from doing things like that? Or was it in the wizarding world that you had to fend for yourself? Was it like the saying she had once heard? "Every man for himself…"

She most certainly hoped not. If things were like that for all witches and wizards it was a cruel place out there in the world.

Lily tried to let her feelings cool down as she handed her book to Madame Pince and went in search of a volume for her Transfiguration essay on How Switching Spells are an Important Advancement in Magic. As her fingertip traced the dusty, book-covered shelves, she searched for the manuscript Catalina had said she'd used. The Index of Necessary Spells: Level One, it had been called…or something of that nature.

With the help of Pince (after she almost broke her back trying to reach the book on the top shelf), she managed to get what she needed quickly. When all had been settled she scurried out of the library as soon as possible.

Then, as she had nothing as to do, Lily decided it would be best to just go on to her next class. There was no point in going back to lunch, it would be over by now.

She navigated her way to the Potions chambers, for the first time in this whole week without getting lost. Or breaking a sweat from running so fast to reach her classes on time when she did happen to go astray in the many hallways that confused most first-years.

Lily just sat quietly, smiling at herself, since she had been one of the first to arrive.

Once all the students had appeared for class, it seemed evident that the Gryffindors had this class with the Hufflepuff first-years. They smiled politely at one another, and some made small-talk with others. Lily avoided all conversation as Lexy fell into the seat next to hers, huffing about the heavy load in her bag as she threw it down on the ground.

"You'd think that the teachers might actually have a lesson for once that didn't include half-a-zillion books."

Catalina giggled from behind them, sitting with Maia, at her own table.

"I don't think they make that possible...besides lessons so far aren't too horrible or loaded with homework..." she trailed off as the Potions master came into view.

He looked jolly; that was the first thing Lily noted about him right away. His thick, straw-colored hair was matted to his forehead as his grinned at the sight in front of him. The next noticeable trait was his face. It was round and had a jovial look about it. It was as though nothing in the world could wipe such a look off of his features.

"I dare say that that might change..." his lips broadening into a cheerful smile as he came down the steps of his office and stood in front of the class. His eyes fell on Lily, no doubt, she thought because of her bright red hair. It was like a neon sign flashing above her forehead. But when his eyes did not cease to move from her, she felt the need to glance at the floor instead of up front.

Lily looked around to see if anyone else was feeling as extremely uncomfortable as she was at the moment. But as she looked around, everyone appeared to me mesmerized by the professor; as if they were hanging onto his every last word. It was true, he seemed amiable, but a tad too inquisitive at the same time.

"My name is Professor Slughorn and I'd like to think that my class, Potions, is a subject everyone can understand. So today, we start right out, with some fun potions. Now look at the person next to you, and wave your goodbyes (of course, only for a brief double class) because you'll be assigned to new seats in three...two...one!"

The students rounded up their books rapidly, saying a quick "See ya" to their friends, and stood in the aisles. The fearful expressions on the kids' faces must have tickled the professor, because he suppressed a grin, and went to the front of the room to find his seating chart. Once he had pulled it out of his desk drawer he walked leisurely back to the students tables and stopped at the first one, in the very front of the room.

"Verde," he called loudly, looking around for Catalina, "You'll be here for the rest of the year." He said, pointing at the seat in front of him and then moving on to the one next to him. Catalina shot forward and took her place.

Slughorn's eyes shot back up from the parchment he was holding as he said cheerfully, "Mr. Black, you shall be accompanying her in the front of the room."

Not a sound the class was louder than the groan emitted through Sirius' lips. Slughorn, upon hearing this, smiled.

"Come on my boy, it's not like I'm condemning you. It's just the front of the room. You get a better view of the explosions."

As Sirius plopped down in the chair next to Catalina, she glared at him for his groan. Sirius caught on to this quickly and held up his hands in protest.

"Hey, it's nothing against you, Verde...But I've never liked the front. James and I always sit in the back..." he whispered, explaining himself apologetically.

"So you can act like prats, I'm sure and make some concoction to take someone's eye out," Catalina muttered, trying not to be heard by the professor. But he didn't seem to notice anyway. Slughorn was much too caught up in assigning seats at the moment.

"Christopher Baker and Tom Ackley, if you would be so kind as to come up here," the professor called, once more gesturing to the two seats behind Catalina and Sirius.

Lily's attention was lost after that. She kind of just spaced out until...

"Lily Evans!" Professor Slughorn said, pointing to a table in the back, "Miss Evans!" He called again and appeared slightly confused with no response.

"Lily, _go_," Lexy murmured, pushing Lily towards the professor, which finally grabbed her attention.

She felt her feet moving quickly and her cheeks turn crimson as she sat at the table Slughorn was pointing at.

"Sorry, Professor."

The teacher just smiled at her and then went back to his list.

"It's perfectly alright," he murmured, searching for the next name, "James Potter," he called.

Oh dear God, no! Her face must have shone her anguish, because Professor Sluhorn looked puzzled by James and Lily as James sat down.

"Something amidst, Miss Evans?"

"No, not at all," Lily lied.

And with that Professor Slughorn continued on with the interesting seating arrangement, stopping every now and then to question students about their relations and admit his connections to them. He was a strange man, Lily thought, Strange but nice enough.

"Today, since this is one of your first adventures into the art of Potions, discuss the nature of potion-making and the ingredients for a simple potion that cures boils. That potion is the one you and your partner shall attempt to concoct in the second-half of the lesson," he explained, looking over each and every person. It reassured Lily out a little bit that he did not expect them to know everything about the potion the first day. He was unlike the other professors. Not to say that they were not understanding and kind, but he seemed very amiable; it was almost as if he was looking to admire them all. She watched as he stopped to speak with Sirius and laugh jovially they exchanged a joke.

Lily glanced around as Professor Slughorn moved back to the front and spoke a bit more about the potion they would be making. Her eyes stopped upon James Potter, the one and only sitting next to her, who was etching a message onto his parchment. "Double Potions" with a huge X through it.

Despite the fact that she liked the professor, Lily could not agree more. Having to sit next to James was not what she wanted for the year, no matter how interesting she found the class to be.

Then she sighed and tried to get her attention back on the professor who was explaining a subject that she might actually be horrible at, so she figured she needed to pay close attention. Halfway through the lesson Lily decided this was interesting.

And it might give her a chance to address James, she reasoned. And she really did want to ask him why he felt the need to commit arson on her school bag. Would her books be next? These were all questions that needed answers.

Then teacher said loudly, "Now you can go to work." As everyone dispersed to their cauldrons with their partners, Lily tried to work up the incentive to ask James what she wanted to ask him.

"Well...we might as well get to work," James mumbled bitterly.

Yeah, well I feel the same way; Lily thought angrily, _You_ aren't my first choice partner, yourself.

"Yeah," she said dully, "What do we need first?"

James shot a look at her and then picked up the paper next to the cauldron. He read it carefully and finally spoke, "The ingredients are dried nettles, crushed snake fangs..." This drew a scowl from both of them; though nether saw the other's. "...Stewed horned slugs...well, yuck...and..."

"Oh, just give me the list," Lily said, feeling fed up at his laziness and looked over his shoulder, "And porcupine quills."

James just glared at her. She was infuriating and she felt it was her duty to make him feel like he couldn't do anything right. He wasn't blind. She had been giving him angry looks ever since they had gotten to Hogwarts, and now he was sick of it. What had he done that had been so horrible that she hated him so? It didn't make any sense whatsoever.

So he decided to do something about it. This had been confusing him for far too long...

"Pass the dried needles," she said simply, interrupting his thoughts and pointing the nettles next to his hand on his side of the table.

"Sure," he replied, as he handed them over.

Lily decided that this would be the time she would say something. Now was when she would finally get this whole ordeal over with. She wanted answers, so she was going to get answers.

Take deep breaths, she told herself, trying to prepare herself for a confrontation with James Potter.

"So, Evans...," James began, as he poured the crushed snake fangs into the bubbling cauldron carefully. "Why do you hate me so much? I never did anything to you!"

Damn, he beat me to it.

Anger seeped through her body as she pondered his question. James seemed to notice a bit, too, as her face was turning almost as crimson as her curly hair.

_Why do you hate me so much? Are you kidding me? _

Then, before Lily even knew what she was saying, those exact words found their way out of her mouth, as she yelled.

The room had gone completely silent. Every head had turned to face Lily. Curious eyes were fixated upon her face as they waited interestedly to see what would happen next. A fight? An injury? A mildly entertaining sequence were Lily threw dried needles at James head? The action didn't get much better than this at Hogwarts, in the first-years perspective.

Everyone's thoughts and glances were broken by Professor Slughorn's attempt to reconcile the two fighting partners.

"Miss. Evans, Mr. Potter, please work together without yelling. There is whole semester of potions work you two will be completely together; is this really how you want to start things?"

Lily just nodded mutely.

So with her response in tact, Slughorn (feeling as though he had just resolved the dispute) headed back to Sirius and Catalina's cauldron where he examined their work.

Despite the warning, there was no stopping the glare on Lily's face now as her swerved back to face James, ready to tell him what she really felt.

"Are you _kidding_ me?" she repeated again in a whisper, her eyes flashing dangerously. "You must be, seeing as _I_ didn't burn your school bag!"

James threw up his arms at this. _What for the love of Quiddditch was this girl talking about?_

"What?" he sputtered, clearly confused, "I don't even know what you're talking about!"

As he said this, Lily grabbed the stewed horned slugs and shoved them viciously into the potion and stirred it like it was the potion that was making her angry.

"Sure," she replied sarcastically, tossing the spoon down in fury, "You have no idea, huh?"

"Well, I don't."

She stared at the boiling liquid in the cauldron. Suddenly she didn't feel like fighting much anymore. "So then who did it?"

She eyed him crossly, waiting for his response. _It had better be good, that's all I have to say,_ she thought.

James had no thought on who could have done it. The only thing he knew was that he had been wrongly persecuted and couldn't even prove his innocence. Just one question bear in his mind.

"I don't know. When did I supposedly do this?" asked James, trying to find a way to show her that he hadn't done anything to make her upset.

Lily scratched her head, thinking a bit. "When you knocked me down in the hallway on the first day. You ran away from me after."

James only tried to remember.

"Yeah, I knocked you down, but I didn't touch your book bag. Swear."

"Well, this leads me back to my question again," she pointed out in a fuming tone, "Who burned it, if you didn't?"

James thought some more. Wow…he had never realized how much effort it took to think back to a week ago. He rubbed his forehead incessantly to keep from getting a headache.

"I know that I passed a couple of ghosts in the corridor, before I came across you. It was the Bloody Baron and that Ravenclaw ghost, I think….Oh! And Peeves was following them, too."

Both of them stopped everything in acknowledgement. Lily paused mid-way into adding porcupine quills to the potion and almost poked herself with them.

"Peeves…" she murmured, accompanying it with a groan.

"No kidding."

As soon as they finished their potion, Lily and James sat down to talk about getting the little poltergeist back for his actions. Even though James wasn't exactly involved, he was excited to try and prank the resident prankster.

"So I guess I shouldn't glare at you anymore?" Lily said, attempting to apologize.

James grinned at her, "Sure...that'd be nice...Though a broomstick might be nicer..."

"Don't push it, Potter," she replied, giving him a friendly shove.


	12. Chapter 12 June Weddings

_**Hypocrites Always Fall in Love**_

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of this (except most of the plot, and the characters you don't recognize). It all belongs to the _amazing _J.K. Rowling.

**Hey…It's me.**

**This is kind of just an introduction to a new character and bridge between chapters that actually contain action. Enjoy!**

**-Kait**

**Chapter 12- **June Weddings

"Maybe we could set him on fire!" Sirius exclaimed excitedly to his companions.

Lily, Catalina, Sirius and James were all huddled in a circle in a dark corner of the Common Room. It was oblivious to the rest of the Gryffindors but they were speaking in hushed voices about how to put a pestering little ghost into his place. Every so often, when they felt that they had heard someone creeping behind them, they would cease their chatter to turn around and find the culprit.

"Shhh...Sirius, not so loud, eh?" James spoke quietly, putting his fingers to his lips.

The two girls present took it upon themselves to shift around to see if anyone had heard them.

"Nope, nothing," Catalina whispered, turning back.

When Lily and James had come out of Potions (with nothing to show for their efforts, except a potion), they realized that they might need a bit of help. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your opinion), Sirius and Catalina were still present to finish up there potion; after James and Lily finished arguing over who should help. Sirius had agreed quickly enough (since he loved to pull jokes, this would be no long shot), but it took a bit of convincing for Catalina. Luckily, between James and Sirius, they managed to charm her into doing it…So hence the situation now.

Lily turned back also to say quickly, "Set him on fire? Is that even possible to do to a ghost?"

Sirius shrugged, "How should I know?"

"Okay...now that's helpful, then," muttered Catalina," Maybe we should just give up. Maybe Peeves in un-prankable."

"Un-prankable?" Sirius questioned, looking amused.

"It's a new word. Deal with it."

Sirius just nodded slowly, and looked to Lily, who was trying to cover a grin with her hand.

James, however, appeared shocked by this.

"Give up?" He looked at Catalina, his eyes boring into hers, "What for? We'll think of something eventually."

"And by then I'll be old and gray..." she trailed off.

"That's the spirit, now!" Lily said sarcastically, and picked up the book in front of her about ghosts, "I'm not giving up just yet...There's got to be something..."

"Lily, come on! He's not solid, so we can't throw anything at him. Plus he can be invisible, so for all we know, he could be listening right now. What can we do?" was the response coming from…guess who?

Lily flipped through the pages of the book fervently, appearing to not have heard a word Catalina uttered.

As she continued to look through her book and ignore the world, James checked her watch.

"Oy!" He yelled, holding up Lily's arm, "It's time for dinner."

Lily had to be dragged away from her place in the Common Room.

Dinner in the Great Hall was mildly tolerable, once they had managed to get Lily away from the twisted world of planning to prank Peeves. It was quite odd to see her so caught up in something. Especially since she was so busy proposing jokes to Catalina (who eventually just settled on rolling her eyes dramatically), that she didn't realize she had gotten mail.

"Hey, Lily!" Sirius called, snapping her out of her trance, "Post arrived!"

"Oh," she said as she reached over to grab her letter, "Thanks Sirius."

"Post!" Catalina exclaimed, throwing up her hands, 'If I'd had known that would stop your rambling; I would have sent you a letter hours ago!"

Lily didn't appear to hear, as everyone else laughed together at the joke. The person seated next to Remus, Lexy, chimed in.

"Not an evening person, huh? And yet in the morning you have all the energy in the world."

Lily still didn't respond. She just kept reading her mail.

_Dear Lily,_

_We hope you're enjoying your time at school. Everything here seems to be less noisy since you left. There are no more fights to be heard with Petunia in the late hours of the night! _

_Your father and I are just hoping that you like your classes and assume that you've made plenty of new friends (since you haven't written us recently). Your father would also like to add: What are the classes like? Do you use magic all the time? Have you seen Pr. Dumbledore lately? And etc, etc… You know your father. _

_Well, anyway, we can't wait to see you at home soon._

_Love you Lulabell,_

_Mom & Dad _

"Oy, Lily. Are you okay?"

Lily glanced up quickly to see Sirius looking her over with eyes full of concern.

"Uh...yeah," she said with a weak smile and a wave of her hand, "Letter from the parents."

"Oh," he muttered darkly, thinking of the letters he had gotten from his family.

_Wait._ He hadn't gotten any. Scratch that.

"Anyone have a quill and some parchment?" Lily called to her fellow Gryffindors seated at the table. She began searching through the contents of her new bag for something that looked remotely like a writing utensil. Unknowingly, she had interrupted Sirius's thoughts briefly.

"I have a quill," he heard someone call in the distance.

"And I found a piece of parchment," the person next to him replied.

Only Sirius couldn't remember who was next to him. All he could think about was his mixed-up family that didn't even send him letters at school.

Eyeing Lily's letter fondly did nothing of the sort to help the situation. It only made him miss a loving family even more.

A few minutes of aimless chatter passed as Sirius brought himself back into the conversation that currently dominated the table. It was the topic of Quidditch to no one's surprise.

"Sirius!" a voice called from behind him, "It's so great to see you again!"

Lily's thoughts were broken as she heard Sirius let out a quiet groan. Then another voice was heard; only this one was next to her.

"Brace your self, Black. Your cousin is coming for you," James muttered as a warning to his dazed friend. What he received for this was a glare.

Suddenly the letter Lily had been writing was forgotten. She was very interested to see who this cousin of his was. Sirius hadn't mentioned that he'd had any relation at Hogwarts. _Why not?_ That was the question was the one plaguing Lily's mind.

She twisted around in her seat to see a girl with black hair as straight as an arrow making the trip from Sytherin table to the Gryffindor table. She was, Lily had to admit, very pretty, with what looked to be icy blue eyes. Lily noticed that she seemed to be critiquing everyone who surrounded Sirius with those eyes. Her only flaw was the unnatural expression on her otherwise immaculate face. She seemed to have a frown permanently plastered onto it. The look of disgust only intensified with each bound toward the table.

"Hello, Lidia," Sirius said when she reached the table. He occupied himself by fiddling with his silverware and not at all meeting her glance as she stared him down in a less than loving way. Lily was feeling the impression that he was scared of her…or at least had no intention of conversing with her.

"So how have you been since summer at Narcissa's?"

She flicked her long black locks out of her face as she made a face at those surrounding her cousin.

_She thinks she's better than us_, Lily thought, glaring from past experience with Sirius's relatives._ I'd like to tell her what I think..._

"He's alive," James said, smiling cynically at her. It was obvious to the rest of the table that he didn't like her, but she didn't appear to notice as she smiled back sweetly at him. "And just for you too...Now aren't you _proud_ of you're ickle cousin?"

Her regal pose faltered slightly as he said that, mostly in surprise.

"Grown a spine, have we?"

"Since when have I not had a spine?" James looked up at her, with a smirk. "It'd be fairly hard to function without one."

"I didn't mean that literally," she glared, as the candlelight from above hit her face just right to make her look perfectly sinister. She seemed to tower over the table with an impeccably royal air.

Then, finally she seemed to notice Lily's presence and extended her hand toward her. "I'm Lidia Rottingham, who are you?"

Lily just stared at her for quite some time deciding what to say first. She tried to talk--but the words wouldn't come out.

"Well...?" Lidia prompted her.

Her mind was made up quickly.

"I'm not a prima donna, that's for sure," Lily responded almost at a mutter. High fives were exchanged around the table behind Lily's back to support her as she carried on. She left Lidia to hold out her hand like a fool and said, "I'm Lily Evans."

"Oh, really..." Lidia said slowly. She took her hand away from Lily instantly. Lily also noted that her face appeared to be turning a rosy shade of pink. "So you're the mudblood everyone's been talking about...the one who egged Peeves..."

At this point she abandoned Lily altogether and turned swiftly back to Sirius as everyone else at the Gryffindor table cringed at the unkind words. James had to clench his fists in his lap in order to keep quiet. Lexy and Catalina looked very offended for Lily. Lily, herself, happened to feel a bit confused by the girl's harsh tone on the word "mudblood" but before she could say anything in her defense Lidia had already begun to address her cousin.

"So...what do you think your mum would say if she found out you were friends with a mudblood?" A smirk was playing on her features. "I don't believe she'd be too happy."

Sirius's face turned very pale, and he was almost unable to speak...But then a thought dawned on him, and he spit it out as his cousin reeled on.

"Perhaps I should send her a post?" Lidia waved her hand in the air, looking for a quill.

"No need, Lidia," Sirius grinned, coming back to life and saying cheerfully, "She's not a muggleborn..."

"I'm not?" Lily blurted out, incredulously, "Er...I mean...of course I'm not."

Lidia didn't look at all convinced when she glanced into Lily's dilated eyes for confirmation, and so she stared blankly at the two of them.

"...Yeah," Sirius continued, finishing his thought, "And anyways, she's marring into James' family."

He winked rapidly at everyone else at the table and indicated that they should nod along vigorously when looked upon by Lidia. Everyone except James, of course...

"What?" he sputtered, spitting out some of the pumpkin juice he had been casually sipping.

"Oh...yes," Lexy agreed, catching on to Sirius, and deciding to add on her own bit of humor. "It's going to be a June wedding."

Lidia just huffed at their "immaturity" and turned on her heel to walk off.


	13. Chapter 13 Wingardium Leviosa

_**Hypocrites Always Fall in Love**_

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of this (except most of the plot, and the characters you don't recognize). It all belongs to the _amazing _J.K. Rowling.

**Chapter 13- **Wingardium Leviosa

A week had past, and Lily still was at odds with what to do about Peeves. Going about it in a normal way was out of the question, as he was a ghost. She had learned very quickly how difficult it was to get around that fact. No one had ever tried, let alone succeeded in accomplishing this incredible feat, so how was she to?

The others had grown impatient and irritated. Catalina, in the end, had dropped out of the plan altogether...she claimed it was just to impossible. Luckily for her, Lily wasn't inclined to argue with her at that point.

So, Sirius, James and Lily sat quietly in the common room, their only company a round-ish blond boy sitting by the fire. They were pouring over books about spells and whatnot. The silence between them was interrupted every so often by the deep crackle of the burning firewood, or an occasional soft page turn.

"I've never done so much studying in my life," Sirius whined (he couldn't stand complete silence), turning his pages loudly to make noise, "Why do I have to do this now? Besides we've got a Potions essay do tomorrow."

His neighbors looked up from their own books, each with a different, twisted expression. James just looked puzzled, while Lily's face clearly showed annoyance.

"You mean you haven't started it yet?" James raised his eyebrows and inquired.

"N-O."

He looked to Lily silently requesting to leave and head for the dormitory.

"Fine," she sighed with an exasperated tone, "Go do your essay."

He smiled, never thinking that he would be so happy to have to finish schoolwork.

Then, throwing his book down on the couch carelessly, he scampered upstairs to write an essay. James grinned at Sirius's complete disregard to hide his feelings.

"I'll be back when I've finished it," he called, from the top of the flight of stairs.

Lily had already returned to her book and continued reading, until another silence came over them. This was when she flicked her head up casually to speak.

"So, do you think he'll come back?"

"Not a chance," James replied, still glancing at the pages blankly.

He let his eyes shift over the pages sketchily, until he spotted something. Perhaps, this...no...

"Hey, listen to this," he said, his index finger skimming the page, "'The Vanishing Cabinet is something used by muggle magicians to make subjects look like they have disappeared.'"

Lily appeared uninterested, "Yeah, so?"

"Couldn't we use it on Peeves?"

"Have you got a vanishing cabinet?"

"Good point," James blushed, feeling like a fool.

Lily flicked through the pages some more, the dim candlelight lighting the book's crinkled pages softly. Her partner in crime had settled on glancing out the window to see the heavy snowflakes setting in outside. How odd it was, he thought, to see snow in the end of October. A white Halloween, now that was saying something.

"Can you use floo powder on a g—"

"Lily," James called interrupting her, "Don't you think that this would be a perfect time to have a snowball fight?"

"If you're that crazy, perhaps," Lily said, eying him slowly. After a brief glance, she went back to her book.

"Okay, fine then," he mumbled, looking back at his thick piece of reading, "Way to take a hint."

They continued to pursue their separate research in silence, once again with not so much as a glance at the other. James, after a while, and after the blond boy had took to the stairs of the boys' dormitory, he let his thoughts wander aimlessly.

Sirius, he said inwardly, Sirius would have never said no to a snow fight. He looked up at Lily vigilantly. What _made her so different then Sirius? Sure, she's uptight at times, but why? She was goal-oriented and that's always nice, but is there a point where you've gone too far. So far, you get obsessed, perhaps?_

If so, that was how Lily had become. She was obsessed with this thing with Peeves. It was brilliant, of course, to try to play a prank on him.

_And I shouldn't be judging_, James thought shamefully (he rarely thought in that way). _After all, I don't know her particularly well enough to judge._

"Hey Evans," James said, standing up and propping his book on top of his head like a balance, "I'm going to head up to bed."

She shot him a look that told him he wasn't going anywhere.

"Well...if it's alright with your queen ship..." He joked, seeming very much like the court jester with his tricks.

"Fine," she sighed and watched as he dashed up the stairs.

"Prat," Lily mumbled loudly and grinned just the slightest bit at his antics.

A messy-haired head was stuck out of the staircase.

"I heard that, Evans."

A curse later, Lily found herself surrounded by (of all things) muggle bobble-heads that would not stop moving.

"Bloody, wretched hell..." she said with a quiet laugh.

---------------------

The next morning, Lily tumbled out of bed and dressed quickly. She hurried down to breakfast, only to find few early-risers up.

"It's a Saturday morning, isn't?" Lily mumbled to herself as she sat down at a vacant table alone. She figured she might as well eat something, since she was already in the Great Hall and had not much else to do, as everyone else was happily sleeping.

A few moments later, as she was helping herself to a plate of sausages and eggs, the post arrived. Lily merely watched as an owl dropped Catalina's Daily Prophet next to her. She set down her fork to take a look at it. She was sure Catalina wouldn't mind.

It was the headline that caught her eye instantly...

**Four More Attacks Terrorize Muggle London; Who Is To Blame? **

**By: Gertrude Bones **

**Tension has been high, since the last attacks in late September, but no one expected the follow-up to come so soon. **

**Just yesterday night, four muggles were victims of the Cruciatus Curse. The members of the Magical Law Enforcement Squad gather that the four had been murdered just a few hours before their deployment. "It was absolutely heart-wrenching," stated one Hit Witch, "I couldn't believe that a wizard would do such an awful thing to another living being." **

**Unfortunately, not much evidence was found to support the theory of a suspect, but our Minister of Magic, Millcent Bagnold, does have one thing to say, "Whoever committed this horrible crime will be found. And when they are, they will be paid the punishment they deserve." **

"Hey Lily," a voice said cheerfully from behind her, "What are you doing?"

She recognized the voice instantly. It was Lexy, much to her surprise. Since when did she get up early with having to be pried out of bed by four girls and the help of Remus?

(He was the only one the girls trusted in their dormitory because he never commented on the state of it. Plus he was the only one up early enough to help them.)

"Reading Cata's newspaper," Lily said frowning at the article in front of her. "Why are you so happy? And at—," Lily glanced at her watch in disbelief, "Seven-thirty, of all times in the morning?"

Lexy took the liberty to glare at her jokingly and shrugged, "I'm getting used to it."

Her companion snorted, and looked back at the newspaper, still in shock from the muggle attacks.

"And…"

"And...," Lexy rolled her eyes, "There's this really cute boy sitting over there."

Lily glanced up at the goofy smile on her face, and looked towards the direction she was pointing in. There was a very nice young boy sitting at Sytherin table, next to Lidia.

"You like Lidia, then?" she said simply, looking back at Catalina's Daily Prophet.

"Do you not have eyes in your head?" Lexy exclaimed, apparently not catching on to the fact that Lily had been joking. "The boy next to her is absolutely divine."

_How much do you want to bet Lidia is thinking the same thing_, Lily thought, watching her and the boy interact. Lidia kept touching his arm and smiling at him. _The snob._

"Alright then," Lily said with a smile, "I can see you like him. You should talk to him sometime. We have Charms with the Sytherins on Monday."

Her eyes were still trailing the boy and Lidia. Lexy turned her head quickly to see what she was staring at.

"Oh…," she uttered softly and taking a seat across from her friend, "So she likes him too."

"Yeah," Lily replied glaring at the pair, "That much is obvious."

Lexy looked back at her, deep in thought.

"I can get him to like me, I'm sure of it."

"And make Lidia mad in the process. I'd love to see her face then," Lily laughed egging her on.

"Definitely," Lexy said, grinning evilly.

And then Lexy seemed to be snapped out of her trance as she looked around the Great Hall. To Lily's astonishment she took a quick swig of her drink and snatched a piece of buttered toast from the stack on the table and hurried to stand up.

"I had better go Lily. See you in the Common Room."

Lily made a motion to get up and stop her, but it was too early to make any sudden movements.

"Where are you—?"

But Lexy had already jumped up and raced out of the Great Hall. Fortunately, Lily looked to her friend's direction to see why. The boy from the Sytherin table was making his way out of the Great Hall, leaving _poor_ Lidia to settle on looking extremely bored.

Just as quickly as Lexy had left, Lily noticed Remus and James entering through the doors of the hall with the most interesting case of bed-hair Lily had ever seen.

"The Halloween decorations look nice," Remus noted with a warm smile as he sat down next to Lily and James across from her.

"Yeah, they're scary," she laughed, passing James the marmalade he was pointing at vaguely, "Kind of like your hair this morning."

"Oh, really," James responded numbly, almost spilling his glass out of clumsiness. Remus appeared to be fully awake and amused by this statement.

"Well, do you two own combs?"

Remus smiled again, "Of course we do. Sirius just took them captive for his own personal use."

Lily just looked at them incredulously; even more so than she had at the insane bats flying around the corridors that had nearly attacked her this morning.

"Don't you worry about lice?"

"Worry about what?" James questioned clearly confused.

"Oh…Sod it," she replied, sitting back in her chair as Remus stifled his laugh. At least he had known what she was talking about. He was a half-blood.

"Whatever you say," James said slowly and helped himself to some toast with jam and sausages.

"Pass the marmalade, James?" Remus said pointedly.

"Sure. _Wingardium Leviosa_."

The marmalade was instantly lifted by James wand and moved at his will. He lazily let it drift to Remus and then set it down.

"Oh come on," Remus murmured, disgusted. "I could have done that."

"Sure you could."

Their companion looked knowingly at the two of them to persuade them to stop arguing. Who wanted to argue in the morning, anyway?

Then the silence insued just as quickly as the conversation had come. Lily placed the _Daily Prophet_ lightly back in Catalina's spot on the table. _Those poor muggles_, she thought as she ate her eggs and stared out into space. _Why would wizards do such things_?

Remus's eyes met Lily's as he looked up from his plate that was piled with an assortment of foods. "Have you come up with a solution to the problem with Peeves yet?"

"No," she sighed. "And I'm beginning to think I should give up. Pass the eggs please, James?"

The platter was quickly levitating her way as she held out her hands and Remus proceeded in rolling his eyes.

Unfortunately, the bowl's landing was not very graceful. It was splattered all over the table as James dropped his wand and Lily failed to catch it.

"Ew..."

Remus was clearly grossed out as he muttered the spell to clean it up and Lily hoisted herself up and took the bowl to the kitchens. When she arrived, the house-elves gladly took the bowl from her and hurried about to replace it.

"Thank you," she mumbled quietly. She still wasn't used to them, even though she'd met them on a trip to the kitchens with Sirius and found them to be very pleasant creatures...

Suddenly a thought came over Lily as she stared at the platter in her hands and she couldn't get it out of her mind. As rapidly as she could, she rushed over to the table, almost knocking over Lidia Rottingham, who was an arm's length away from James and Remus, talking to a Ravenclaw girl.

"James, you're bloody brilliant!" She exclaimed as she set the eggs on the table and leaned over to hug James out of complete and utter happiness.

"I know," he smiled arrogantly. "Why, again?"

"Because you gave me an idea for Peeves...," she grinned and returned to her seat like she was floating on a cloud.

Remus had the oddest look on his face. "James, brilliant? Now I really didn't see that one coming..."

Lily looked up and laughed cheerfully. Then she helped dismiss the looks of shock on James and Remus's faces as she went on, "Now here's what we're going to do about Peeves..."

Sadly, she forgot to look around to make sure no one was listening, so a person just an arm's length away over heard, and began to hatch her own little plan.


	14. Chapter 14 Broom Closets and Trick Doors

_**Hypocrites Always Fall in Love**_

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of this (except most of the plot, and the characters you don't recognize). It all belongs to the _amazing _J.K. Rowling.

**Here's another chapter…Sorry it took so long. But I will (just to let you know) be taking a little break from this story I think…just for a little while. I should (at least) have more chapters for you by mid-June, if not before. Thanks for the reviews, and I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

**-Kait **

**Chapter 14- **Broom Closets and Trick Doors

"Are you ready?"

It was Sunday evening and Lily and James were sitting with Remus and Sirius in the common room. Catalina and Lexy had already settled on going to bed, mainly for Lexy's comment on needing "beauty rest." The others huddled around the fire in their respective armchairs trying to look busy with work and keep warm. Lily had taken to wrapping herself up in a blanket while the other three managed to appear like they were working studiously on school work and essays. Three scratching quills was almost enough to drive Lily mad...but she sustained her composure by re-evaluating their plan of the night for the hundredth time.

"What?" Lily mumbled dazed from her thoughts and glanced over at Sirius, who had addressed her, "Oh, yes...Of course."

"This is a monumental event of some sort," James said, marveling in late hour and the perfect plan they had concocted. "Our first practical joke at Hogwarts… Who would have thought?"

"We've been whispering and planning for the past day," Remus grinned, "Oh no, I never thought I would see it happen."

There were a few laughs and smiles exchanged, but they soon went back to sitting and writing in silence.

Would it work? Lily had been wondering that for the past day. She was not exactly an expert on ghosts and what they were susceptible to. And how did they know that Peeves wouldn't retaliate? And that the way he got them back would be worse, much worse than eggs...

But as long as they kept quiet and Peeves never realized who they were...Perhaps he would never find out and then they would get off. Somehow, it did not seem likely...

Still, it seemed fairly just to say that Lily deserved to play a little joke on Peeves. After what he had done to her bag, it just seemed only fair.

She glanced down at her watch briefly to see how much time had passed. They couldn't be out too late for this since they did, after all, have classes in the morning.

"It's twelve!" She hissed to the others as she threw the blanket off herself and onto the chair.

James stretched a bit and yawned while Sirius, next to him, mumbled, "Well, it's about time."

"You have got to learn patience," James said with a smirk and tossed his parchment and quill in the corner, "Besides, this will be fun."

Remus placed his own books carefully under his armchair so no one would spot them. "You are one to talk about patience, James," he said in a hushed tone as he knelt down, "This morning you were on about how long it takes Sirius to take a shower."

"Well, a person should not be in the bathroom for more than twenty minutes. Nothing will ever justify that."

"Just wait James. In two years you'll be the one taking forever I bet," Sirius said defiantly and went towards the door, where Lily happened to be standing and motioning for them to start moving. In this century.

"Come'on," she whispered in a whiny voice, "Argue later about rubbish, let's get Peeves now."

As she ushered the unnaturally silenced boys out of the Common Room, she found herself murmuring her thoughts aloud.

"Now to go and find Peeves..."

----------------------------

To Lily's amazement, locating Peeves in the vacant corridors wasn't the hard part of the plan...They found him quite easily, actually. He could be heard crackling and playing jokes on the enchanted suits of armor, who in turn were attempting to swat him away. The only problem was that they could never quite reach him, as his being a ghost gave him the advantage of flying right through things.

"So what do we do now?" Lily asked in a whisper once the four of them had stopped and perched behind a staircase.

James looked at her in bewilderment. "I thought you had that under control."

A number of quiet groans and mumblings were to be heard through the hall. They didn't realize exactly how loud until Peeves stopped reeking havoc on the armor to float just a few inches away from them to see what the noise was all about.

"Have we got some ickle firsties hiding up the staircase, just waiting for me? I suppose we shall see...Here firstie, firstie...Here kids...," he whispered with an evil grin illuminating the corridor as he practically crept up the staircase.

Remus quickly spoke up in the silence. "There," he said hoarsely and pointed behind them, almost making the others jump out of their skin, "Into that broom closet over there until Peeve's suspicions wear off."

The group quickly followed Remus into the closet as quietly as humanly possible. Lily was pushed in first, followed by the pusher (Sirius), then James and finally Remus. The door closed with a thud.

"Let's hope he didn't hear that," Lily whispered as Remus put his ear to door to listen more closely.

"James! You're on my leg," Sirius whined, "Get off!"

"I would, if Remus would move off my foot," he shot back, glaring into the darkness in a direction that he guessed Remus to be.

Remus slid away from the door and up off of James only to land on someone else.

"Remus...," Lily hissed in pain and bit her lip to control herself from yelling in anguish.

"Sorry," he mumbled and moved into the corner while batting away musty cobwebs.

The four were silenced for a few moments as they got themselves situated and moved to their respective corners so no one was sitting on any part of anyone else.

"So what do we do now?" Lily asked as Remus pressed his ear against the door again.

"Nothing, I'd say," James murmured, and said a spell to light his wand so they could see.

Remus smiled at him in agreement. "That's exactly right. We should probably wait a few minutes before going back out there."

Sirius looked a bit confused by this and made no effort to hide this. "Here's my question. Once we get out there, how are we going to distract Peeves so we can do this thing?"

The other three shared a quizzical glance as they went deep into thought. A moment or two passed by before Lily spoke up.

"I think I read about something that might help us," she whispered and looked around, "In Hogwarts: A History."  
"You actually read that?" Sirius said incredulously, his eyes as big as saucers.

"Hey," James hoarsely whispered in her defense, "I've read it too!"

Remus and Sirius simply gave him this look of huge disbelief. James was just lucky the closet was nearly pitch-black, that way no one noticed him blushing furiously.

"Er...well, my mom... made me," he finished lamely.

"Right."

"Whatever you say, mate," Sirius grinned, holding back a laugh but failing miserably.

"Let's just go," James grumbled. "Nox."

He pushed open the door in anxiousness. He just wanted to get out of there, he didn't care if there was anyone outside or not.

Fortunately, there was no one in the hallway or on the staircase. No one spotted them.

"Hey, wait," Lily said, scrambling out of the closet after the others, "You didn't hear my plan."

"Whatever it is," James said casting a glance at her, "I'm sure it's brilliant. Just lead us to where ever your plan starts."

She proceeded in giving him a very odd look and smoothed out her pajamas. "Alright, but it's hard to find the room."

"What room?" he asked. Remus and Sirius appeared to be just as perplexed as he and stopped in their tracks.

"The room we need," she replied, waving her hands vaguely. "It only appears when you need it too."

"Well that's convenient, eh?" Sirius said with a grin.

Remus threw up his hands. "We could be left searching for hours."

Lily smiled and started down a corridor. "And I'm bad with directions. But this would suck all the fun out of it."

The boys followed her in curiosity and so that they wouldn't get lost.

"Well that's reassuring," Remus muttered to James.

"I think she's gone crazy," Sirius murmured, glancing around at the torch lights the knights of armor seemed to be holding. And very life-like, too.

"What other choice do we have?" James said with a grin and sped up to keep up with her.

The Gryffindor first years crept along the corridors in silence after that. Sirius was easily assigned the task of trailing behind so that he could make sure no one saw them or managed to follow them around (He was the most alert at that hour).

Lily looked around nervously as she led the group quickly around the school. They narrowly escaped McGonagall at one point, when it seemed like she was where ever then turned. Luckily, Sirius spotted her before she spotted them and James had enough sense to grab Lily by the wrist and guide her to gap behind the statue of Gergory the Smarmy and the stone wall.

"Where are you going to go then?" She hissed as he frantically looked for another hiding place.

He moved around in helplessness and finally stopped in front of Lily and the statue.

"Move over," James whispered, his voice hoarse. "Quick!"

Lily didn't even have time to protest, as James squeezed his way behind the statue. She just moved over and tried to make as much room as she could.

"Lower your head for a bit," James mumbled as he watched McGonagall walking closer to them.

Lily's heart was pounding…She had never really done anything like this before. Back at her muggle school, she never pulled anything or played jokes on anyone. So she was terrified. Incredibly terrified…she had never felt so exposed. If Professor McGonagall managed to see them, what would happen? How much trouble could they get into? Lily was sure that whatever happened, it wouldn't be good.

She did what James told her as McGonagall quickly approached.

And she could have sworn that Professor McGonagall looked right at them as she went about putting out most of the lights. Or looked right at the statue, rather…

But she continued to stroll down the corridor…like she had only seen the statue and had not noticed them at all. It was unnerving for Lily.

After a few moments passed, James carefully lifted his head up and craned his neck over the statue's shoulders to make sure it was okay to move.

"Clear," he whispered and stealthily squeezed himself from out behind Gergory the Smarmy.

Unfortunately, his landing wasn't as polished as he thought it was going to be. He ended up tripping off the base of the statue and almost hitting the floor painfully before he managed to catch himself.

"Well that was quite graceful," Lily giggled while stepping down from the statue's base.

"Bet you can't trip like that," James shot back, trying to challenge her as he gained control of his wobbly ankles.

"I can only imagine that you will have your revenge some day," she said slyly and glanced around, "Where did Sirius and Remus run off to?"

James looked around with her as he brushed off his pajamas in case of any dirt or dust. Lily examined the area around another statue and still could not find them. She was beginning to feel anxious…What if McGonagall had caught them? And then if she had, when they rat out Lily and James? Highly unlikely…but still…

"I'm going to check for them on the next floor, okay?" He whispered to Lily as he started for the staircase.

"James," she called in a hushed voice as he began to slink his way up the stairs, "Be careful!"

He just nodded mutely and continued up. As he disappeared to the corridor on the next floor, Lily occupied her time with attempting to find the boys in this hallway. She searched a few vacant classrooms and happened to be in one when she heard a noise from the stairs.

"Lily," she heard a hoarse mumble as she started for the doorway. "Lily…," It called again from the dark corridor.

Suddenly Lily noticed just how little torchlight actually lit up the hallway…And as she stuck her head out of the door frame cautiously, she felt complied to lock the door right then and there.

…But there was something in their voice, something she seemed to know…felt a connection to…

She quickly snuck out of the empty classroom and stood near the staircase she had watched James walk up just a mere fifteen seconds earlier.

"James?" She whispered. Her voice was barely audible; since she could not be completely sure it was _him_ she was talking to.

"Lily?"

_Hmmm. So it was James…_

She began to walk in the direction of his voice. She felt blind as she cautiously took steps forward and silently cursed Professor McGonagall for extinguishing the hall lights. Then, of course, she took it back because you can't go wishing rotten things on a teacher…even if they don't know it.

"Yeah?"

He was getting closer…She could almost see him now.

"I found the other two," James said with a quick laugh. "Sirius seemed to knock right into a door he claimed was a wall when he saw it."

Lily could see the funny smirk on his face at the tip of the stairs.

"That was no wall!" She exclaimed, just as James put a finger to his lips to quiet her, "That was the Room of Requirement!"

"Oh, so it pops out of nowhere, eh?"

Lily gave him a quizzical look. "Not exactly... Like I said before, it only 'pops out of nowhere' when you need a place to hide and things like that."

"Well that's pretty cool," he commented and started to go up the staircase.

"Yeah," Lily murmured sarcastically, "It's amazing, the sort of knowledge you can learn from a book."

He stopped quietly in his tracks and turned around to grin devilishly at her. "That is, if you ever got the urge to pick up such rubbish and actually _read_ it."

-------------------

Remus was looking quite harassed when James and Lily reached him and Sirius. Apparently, he had underestimated Sirius's stupidity, as he put it. Though he was fairly happy that Sirius "stumbled" upon the Room of Requirement, he wasn't very happy when his companion knocked over a case of Filbusters fireworks and water balloons thus causing the state of the room to be disastrous.

"At least that's what we were going to do to the room anyway," Lily responded with a shrug upon seeing the room and watching Remus almost tear all of his mousy brown hair out.

"I suppose," Remus mumbled and closed the door behind the two of them, "But what if someone heard the noise?"

"I doubt it," she replied lightly, "Especially if they haven't come by now."

"Right, of course…," Remus said, regaining his normal calm and collective personality.

Sirius and James, however, got down to business while the other two tried to strategize. They inspected all of the shelved joke devices carefully as to make sure there were no malfunctions. They had to make a mess of this room and the hall around it and it was _not_ going to be easy.

Once they had finished and their companions had planned every last detail, the four Gryffindors quickly got to work. James and Remus took to throwing Filbusters No Heat Fireworks ("completely safe, even for your house-elf") and Ever-bashing Boomerangs before ducking out of the room. Lily assigned herself to toss water balloons down the corridor and splatter water in the most inconvenient places. The other three made sure Sirius got the job of setting of dungbombs through out the corridor and in the room.

"So now how to do get Peeves here?" Remus questioned, holding his nose.

"I know," Sirius chimed in happily, "HEY PEEVES! FIRST YEARS IN THE ROOM OF REQUIREMENT!"

The others gasped in horror. Each had a terrible look on their face, like they wanted to clobber him.

Lily stood in awe herself. She could not believe Sirius had just yelled that for the whole school to know.

"Oh and _that's_ not going to attract any attention!" She exclaimed, in spite of herself.

"You lot," James said hoarsely and with a tone of anxiousness, "(Once you're done arguing) might want to HIDE."

Everyone scrambled around the room, scattering what was left in their hands. But out of nowhere appeared a silvery cloak on one of the vacant armchairs…

"Here…," James hissed and grabbed the cloak on the chair he had just spotted, "Under this!"

"What…?" was Remus's candid reply while Lily also chimed in.

"Yeah…What in bloody hell is that thing?"

James looked around furiously, before responding quickly back. "Just trust me, okay?"

The other two exchanged fast glances as Sirius followed James under the cloak. Remus and Lily reluctantly followed when they began to hear faint footsteps…and suddenly…they weren't visible anymore.

"Wicked!" Sirius said happily and went on grinning.

His companions gave him very "uplifting" glares to tell him to hush up. From then on they stood silently, huddled together, quite simply waiting for the footsteps to draw closer.

But before they did, Peeves entered the room and looked about it with what seemed to be a mischievous, yet honored look.

"Not my work…but not bad all the same…Now come out, come out kiddies!"

_Alright, _Lily thought, _This is good…Peeves is here. The only problem is **we** weren't supposed to be here while he got caught! What a mess!_

If only she could have the chance to kill Sirius right there on the spot…

Unfortunately, there was no time for that. Professor McGonagall had crossed the threshold to the room and saw Peeves standing (or floating, rather) around the disarray of fireworks and water balloons. It was quite the horrifying sight.

"You see, Professor," a voice came from the shadows outside the doorway, "I _told_ you those four were planning on ruining the school property!"

Lidia Rottingham's face was revealed as she stepped forth through the door and into the candlelit room. Her face not only conveyed her snooty appearance but also the shock that replaced a smile to see no one but Peeves at the scene of the crime.

"PEEVES!" McGonagall barked, "You have some explaining to do to Dumbledore when I get done with you!"

"Professor," Peeves crackled, his smile broken, "You are mistaken."

"I most certainly am not," she replied angrily, shaking her finger, "You'll be coming along with me. And you…," she went on, turning to see Lidia still looking shell-shocked, "The fact that you knew about this leads me to believe you had a part in it."

"But Professor," she exclaimed, the smile completely gone from her face, "I had nothing to do with this. I just overheard people talking about it."

Lily and Remus smiled silently with the others as they realized that they might actually be off the hook…


End file.
